New Worlds
by Drake81
Summary: Two years after the war Duo's life changes in major ways.  Now Five years later he's come back to show them all exactly how much he's changed.
1. Chapter 1

New Worlds

What was already known…

The way he stated out in life was nothing new or noteworthy. He was born into a loving family with a bright future ahead and the potential to do and be anything, but fate had changed its mind and this time she wasn't going to play nice.

By the age of five the boy had lost everything. No name, no family, no home. Life on the streets became his world and his way of life. He learned to fight for his survival that nothing came easy, and the world could be a truly frightening place when no one cares. By the time he reached the age of ten he was a member of a street gang and the best thief around. He had learned to be still, to be silent, and to blend in with the shadows. A year later fate once more showed her hand and he lost everyone to plague, but this time fate showed him faith in the form of a run down church, run by one Father Maxwell and Sister Helen. The good people of Maxwell Church taught him that life can be beautiful and laughter is, truly, good for the soul. Later he learned how fragile it all was as he watched the church burn down around him. That night a creature of such rage and sorrow was born, Fate smiled.

At the age of fifteen he had become one of the world's most formable weapons and this weapon was going to make the world take notice; all with a laugh and a smile.

And the world was saved…

Duo Maxwell, master thief, cold-blooded killer, and all around savior of the world was, truly, board stiff. The war had been over for two years now and everyone had gone back to their original lives. Qutra was back running his family business and helping Relena ensure peace. Trowa decided to stay with Cathy and the circus. He was also doing a few cover side jobs for the Preventers when needed. Heero and Wufie worked as partners in the Preventers full time along with Zechs, Noin and Sally. The whole thing was run by Lady Une. Duo was the only one with nothing to go back to; sure Preventers would have welcomed him with open arms and been happy to add him to the ranks but he was never very good at following orders and for a guy that spent his entire life fighting, living as a civilian left much to be desired. So fate stepped in once more and while out on an exploration run at the ass end of the know universe Duo's shuttle exploded. It would be a month before Preventer HQ would receive the news.

It rained the day they held Duo's funeral, all through out the ceremony Qutra kept rubbing his chest and looking around. Later that night Trowa asked him about it and his answer sent shivers down his spine, "I thought I heard Duo screaming," he replied.


	2. Chapter 2

What was never learned…

Auliya found Max exactly where she though she would; in the workout room beating the crap out of the equipment. At 5'6" Max wasn't a very imposing person. At first glance his almost elfin like features, big, wide eyes, and long white hair gave first time observers the impression of delicacy. Add in Max's friendly manner, cheerful smile, and the ability to talk non-stop and the observer never would have guessed exactly how deadly a man Max could be.

Max was also the only outsider in recorded history to be adopted into Richese oldest and most powerful clan, the Death's Hand Clan. His Mother, Lady Isis, is the High Lords daughter, and as such her son was taught all the clans secrets. Whispers around the court said that Lady Isis's son was someone to truly fear, even for someone from the Death's Hand.

Kiswa walked up behind Auliya and grunted, "Hn, I see Max has already been told about our next assignment."

_Max walked into Jon's office looking forward to seeing his cousin again, "Yo Jonny-boy, how's it going!" Jon looked up from the paperwork on his desk and smiled, "Max it's good to see you." He got up and the two men shook hands and hugged, both glade to see each other once again. "Please have a set," Jon motioned after stepping back to get a good look at his cousin. Max grinned and said in a teasing voice, "Uh-o Jonny-boy's got his manners on, this can't be good" Jon blushed and swatted his cousin on the arm, "We can't all be heathens, unlike you." Max laughed and sat down in the indicated chair. Looking at his cousins smiling face Jon felt his own smile dim at what he was about to ask him to do, "We have a possible problem, Max" Jon's lips twitched as he saw Max's eye's light up in anticipation of another job. Max so loved a good hunt. "You remember a few years ago we made contact with a new world?" Jon asked, and as Max nodded he continued with his explanation, "it turns out that we had a lot more in common with them then we first though." Max raised an eye brow in question but refrained from commenting. As far as Max had been briefed the new world, while similar to their own, was less technology advanced and didn't have near the potential for users of the arts as their own worlds. Several Generals had been heard to speculate that the new world may not even be good enough for any of the worrier classes to be interested in. The council was currently in debate on weather to continue relations with the new world or to look else ware for new alliances. "It's your old world Max," Jon replied softly, carefully watching his cousin's face for a reaction. The reaction was truly amazing to see, it was like watching someone flip a switch, one moment live and animated, the next dead and gone, no personality. Jon signed softly, "It gets worse. It seems they have developed a problem they think is directly related to us. A possible rouge faction as recently become active and they seem to have access to our weapons. So far they've managed to keep a lid on it but it's only a matter of time before their media outlet get's a hold of it and with the current political situation being what it is on both side things are not looking good." Max had yet to make a response throughout it all. Leaning back in his chair Jon sighed once again and rubbed his face tiredly. "So far we've managed to convince them that we had no idea any of our weapons where missing let alone in human hands. So they've agreed to let us send in a sweeper team to join with one of their own and train them to help with the capture of the rouge cell." That last comment finally got a reaction, "Don't you dare fucking say it Jon, don't you even think it," Max growled causing Jon to look at him in silence. "SON OF A BITCH!" Max shouted, springing out of the chair, and started pacing the office, coming to a stop a few minutes later at the nearest window. Not even bothering to turn around he asked, "Who's the mark?" Jon replied, keeping his answers to one word, "Dread." Max grunted and replied, "My team, my way." Jon nodded his agreement and Max stalked out of the room._

Kiswa winched in symphony as Max took a particularly nasty blow from one of the hover disks. A few seconds later it exploded. One of the twins, Bakka, whistled in appreciation, "The man is truly pissed." They all looked at the smoking remains scattered around the room and watched as Max finished off the last of the hover disks. Even with his back to them Max knew his team was there. Turning to face them he reached for his towel and said, "The mission is completely voluntary; once you agree to go you can't change your mind as the portal will not be open again for another two years." He paused in wiping the sweat from his face and took a drink form his water bottle, giving his team time to think it over. "Who's the mark?" Auliya asked looking at him in question. For the first time Max smiled, "Jon's cousin, Vice Foreign Minister Dread." The twins hooted in laughter and Kiswa smiled. "So when do we leave?" was the only other question asked, causing Max to laugh in surprise.


	3. Chapter 3

And the beat goes on…

Max watched as the vast emptiness of space passed by the ships window, wondering, not for the first time, about the changes that occurred while he was gone. The Minister came up beside him and asked, "You ok Max?" Max didn't bother to reply and the Minister once again felt sorry for this mysterious man that his cousin Jon and his family so loved, "I wish you would reconsider your position on this." Max just grunted and continued to stare out the window. The Minister sighed softly and walked away. A few moments later his spot was taken by Auliya, Max's second in command. She stood quietly and waited for Max to speak. "How are the twins fairing?" he finally asked. The twins, Bakka and Baraka, where emphatically linked and while going through the training tapes for this new assignment liked and, for lack of a better term, short circuited each other out. "They have a hell of a hang over, but their fine," she answered. Auliya looked at her Commander and saw the worry, as well as, the sadness in his eyes. "Don't worry boss we won't let them get hurt," she said with such assurance that it made him smile.

As Heero looked over the report his worst suspicions where confirmed. He looked up at Lady Une, "The delegation is scheduled to arrive in less then two hours. They are to be held in custody until it has been determined if they are the next target. While they are being held, Relena and Qutra will discuss with them our finds and see if they can't shed a little light on what's been going on. In the mean time you and your team will do a through sweep of their ship." Heero nodded his agreement and gathered the file as he stood. "Yui, remember this is a diplomatic mission. Don't go stepping on any one's toes just yet," commented Lady Une as Heero headed for the door. Heero grunted and continued on his way.

It took Heero and his team a full four hours to thoroughly search the ship, because it was a diplomatic mission he wasn't allowed access to the ships AI so he had nothing to bases any type of suspicion on just a gut feeling that he was missing something very important. Something very big.

As Max and his team watched the Preventer team from the shadows he could help but appreciate all the changes that had taken place to one Heero Yui. Topping out at 5'7" Heero had gotten a little wider across the shoulder and had gained more muscle mass across the chest and arm area. All in all, still recognizable as the same old Heero. Max smiled slightly as Heero gave one last glance over his shoulder before following the rest of his team out. Max's team stepped from the shadows and Auliya gave a low whistle, "Man boss he is defiantly a cookie." Kiswa looked at her in questions, "Cookie?" Auliya grinned, "Yeah, someone you'd want to take out and nibble on." The twins fell to the floor laughing and Max snorted in amusement, "Come on you two we've got a job to do."

Meanwhile, Relena and Qutra watched from the observation room as the diplomats from Richese where carefully scanned and lead into the room where the current talks where to be held. Qutra shivered as if cold; as he watched the six men enter and look around. The Tleilaxions, as the race was called, where tall to say the lest the smallest of the six being no smaller then 5'7". Their skin color ranged from an almost transparent white to a light gold. Their hair, while not as diverse as their skin color ran from a light brown to a dark black. What made Qutra, and most people meeting them for the first time, truly nervous was their eyes. A cold, almost glacier ice blue color and all of them had the same color. Qutra took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, looking at Relena he asked, "You ready to do this?" She nodded and together they headed for the door.

Vice Foreign Minister Dread looked around the room with curiosity, noticing how, human, it looked. Nothing like the relaxing rooms they had back on Richese. Dread sighed and thought, 'No wonder, humans are wound so tight' He wished his head of security where here to explain this to him. Movement on the other side of the room caught his eye. He studied the two young people as they entered and greeted his party. Both where blonde and of almost delicate feature, the female, Relena as he had been told her name, had her hair pulled back into such an interknit knot Dread winched thinking of all the time spent on doing it. She wore a charcoal gray business suite with a tasteful lapel pin on the jacket. The boy, Qutra wore a light blue business suite with a silver tie and black shoes. 'They couldn't be much older then Max' he though once again wondering what kind of world it was that depended on such young children. As they settled around the table Dread couldn't help but hope that Max and his team didn't have any difficulty finding what they would need.

Max released the mouse and watched as it disappeared into the system. Closing the maintenance panel he signaled the twins and continued down the hall. By the time he had reached the first door the mouse had done it job and the team was in. A few minutes later all hell broke lose. The diplomats looked up in worry as the room shook and an explosion was heard. The alarm sounded a second later. Dread turned to look at the other men in the room with him, "Gentlemen I do believe we have a situation on our hands." Qutra and Relena looked at each other in confusion as the diplomats shared a laugh and stood up from their chairs, removing their robes as they neared the door. Qutra's eyes widened in surprise at the bodysuits the men wore and the weapons they where currently checking and readjusting. Qutra heard a radio crackle to life as the men put in their ear piece and tuned into whatever frequency they where using. "Fire team alpha on line," Drake replied as he carefully opened the door a crack to make sure the way was clear. "Fire team this is the Reaper; looks like our sources where right it was the Lady and her kids they where after. You got the doves?" "That's a roger, the doves are secure, we'll leave one in the barrel and send the rest out" "Roger that Fire team going to active signal now." Drake closed the door softly and turned to look at Qutra, "I believe you should prime your weapon, Seafon here will give you support." With that he opened the door once more and left, the remaining five men following. "I don't suppose you'd care to explain just what exactly is going on would you?" Qutra asked causing Seafon to grin and continue his lookout.


	4. Chapter 4

WARNING: Ok people this is a heads up for this chappie as the language gets a little rude. Am not changing the rating as this should be the only chapter that is like this, so hopefully it woun't offend to many people. The first couple of paragraph are loosly based on real life experiance hense the rude words so sorry if it offends anyone.

Remembering the days of yore…

The sun was shinning, the birds where singing, and the day promised to be a beautiful one. As far as one Duo Maxwell was considered it was enough to make him commit mass mayhem, especially if those fucking birds didn't shut up and let him get back to sleep. Seriously, who in their right minds would want to be up this damn early? Duo lifted his head just high enough to look at the clock sitting on the table next to his bed. 'Six o'clock in the gods be damned morning', he thought once again covering his head with his pillow, 'definitely grounds for justifiable bird homicide. No judge in the world would convict me.' Just as he was about to drift off and new sound split the morning air. The sound of a ringing vid phone. At this point Duo really considered shooting himself 'at lest if am in the hospital no one can bug me there' he though as he finally gave up on the idea of sleep all together. Stumbling over to the phone he fumbled with the on switch for a few seconds before the screen finally lit up. "You'd better be fucking dying to be calling me this early," he growled at the person at the other end of the line. "Well aren't we just a little ray of sunshine this morning," said Hilde with laughter in her voice. Duo groaned and laid his head on the table next to the phone, "I just got off a triple shift, have had nothing to eat for the past ten hours, and have only been asleep for two hours, so unless the building is on fire or we're once again at war, go the fuck away." He could hear Hilde laughing and decided that it was a good thing she was a friend or he really would have to kill her. Duo's job was your basic freelancing, because he had access to all ports, on both earth and the colonies, it made him a type of go to guy for just about anyone who had the cash to afford him. You need a package delivered, picked up, or specially handled, call Duo Maxwell. Need to get in or out without alerting the authorities, information on your rivals, new places found or explored, Maxwell Enterprises is your place to call. Business was good, in fact, business was so good Duo was looking to having to farm out some of his business to the Sweeper crew he and Howard still sponsored. This explained his current problem of going two and a half days with no sleep and very little to eat. Surveillance jobs where always a bitch and a bore, but at 800 an hour, plus expenses it was a good way to earn money fast. The client, a business run out of the L4 colony, had hired Duo to follow one of its VP that they were convinced was selling company secretes. Duo had finally managed to catch the man and his contact last night, as well as, retrieve the client's information before it could be sold. After spending five hours at the local police station giving his statement and turning over the collected evidence he finally stumbled home at four o'clock that morning.

Duo must have fallen back asleep when he put his head on the desk for the next thing he knew someone was knocking on the door and Hilde was no longer on the phone. Stumbling to the door he unlocked and opened it, looking blurrily at the person standing there. Once his poor tired brain made sense of the dark blob in front of him being that of Hilde he gave serious consideration of closing the door and pretending he'd never seen her. Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance as Hilde, not bothering to wait to be invited in, walked into his apartment. Leaning his head against the door and closing his eyes, he signed in defeat, "You'd better be making me some coffee if you want any kind of response from me." Closing the door he could hear Hilde in the kitchen opening the coffee can and filling the pot with water. Deciding the best place for him to be right now, considering whatever it was Hilde wanted to speak to him about was apparently important enough for her to come all the way over to his apartment, was in the shower trying to wake up so he headed to the bathroom. He sighed again and rub his face, god he hated cold showers, they where always so..cold.

Fifteen minutes later he was out, dressed and sipping his first cup of coffee. "Alright lay it on me, what's so important you have to deny me my much need beauty sleep?" he asked after a moment of silence. Hilde handed him a file, a file that looked like it came from the Preventers, a file that looked like it was highly classified and should not be out side Preventer HQ, a file that made Duo's eyes light up in joy at the prospect of a fun job courteous of the Preventers. Humming the theme song to an old Earth movie about impossible missions Duo opened the file and began to read. While Duo read Hilde turned to the fridge and got out the makings for breakfast. As the pan warmed for the eggs and bacon she turned to get the plates and silverware out. As she pulled the silverware door out she noticed that Duo had quite humming, turning she looked at him and smiled. Duo was studying the file intently; with such a serious look on his face it was almost funny. Knowing Duo like she did she knew he was interested already and it was just a matter of time before she had her answer so she went back to making breakfast. While the file wasn't that thick it did contain a lot of techno babble making reading it a challenge so when Hilde laid the eggs, toast, and bacon in front of him ten minutes later he was still reading through the file.

Five minutes later, breakfast was done and Duo had finished with the file. Looking at Hilde he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest, "I get five percent on any value this thing may have pulse the standard fee for risking my neck." Hilde looked at him in surprise, while she knew Duo wasn't on good terms with the Preventer she didn't think that after reading the file he would still charge them a fee considering how important this find could be. "Your kidding right?" she asked hoping she had heard wrong. Duo said nothing and continued to look at her until she exhaled loudly, "Fine, when can you leave?" Duo sat up and grinned, seconds later he began to discuses with Hilde the finer points of the job.

Four weeks, two days and six hours later Duo was ready to bounce off the walls. He was a social creature by nature and while he didn't mind the occasional alone time, four weeks on the shuttle alone with no one to talk to was enough to drive any sane person crazy. Luckily for him it was at that point in time the proximity alarm went off indicating he had reached the coordinates. Quickly slipping into his suit he walked the five steps to the cockpit and began to power up the outside cameras and slowing down the ship all the while strapping himself into the pilot's chair.

'Fuck me sideways' was the first thing Duo though when he finally saw the object he had been sent to investigate. 'It's huge' was the second thing he though after he got a complete view of the ship, for a ship it was. In the shape of a 3-D triangle the size of one of earth's old cargo ship it was a sold gray and had no apparent openings or any type of windows. Decorating the hull was what one could only describe as a type of hieroglyphic and flowing lines that carved all over its outer hall. When Duo tried to take any type of readings from it they all came back the same 'origin unknown'. When he tried an IF scan on the ship he got a surprising reaction, the ship started to hum. Quickly he stopped the scan and waited to see if the humming would stop. It didn't, instead it seam to steadily increase in both pitch and volume causing Duo to wince in pain. Deciding that it would be best to put a little distance between him and the new ship he fired his reverse thrusters. It was at this point something seamed to grab a hold of his ship and slowly started to pull it towards the bigger unidentified ship. Putting a little more power into his thrusters to try and break whatever it was that held him his ship began to shake. As Duo struggled to brake free and to hold his ship together he noticed that every time he fought for release the noise coming from the ship got louder and higher making it increasingly difficult to think and hear as the noise seamed to pierce through his brain. As Duo continued to fight he felt something wet slide down his ear and neck. Wiping at it in an absent minded way he was surprised to find his hand covered in blood. Now Duo was pissed, 'Alright you piece of shit you want to do this the hard way, the hard way it is. If I can't fight this thing let's see what happens when you give it what it wants.' Tightening his restraints he slammed open the forward thrusters to full and shot towards the ship, for a moment he was free of whatever it was that had gripped him. Next thing he knew it felt like he was being slammed into a brick wall. Alarms sounded, sparks flew, and the main board went dead, Duo had just enough though to do the final seal on his suit before he blacked out.


	5. Chapter 5

A new world, a new life…

Pain..the world in which he now lived in was darkness, he could neither see nor hear what was going on around him. The only thing he could do was feel the pain, it came from everywhere. It hurt to move, it hurt to breath. Every beat of his hart sent new agony throughout his body. Breathing was becoming a challenge and he could tell he was slowly dying. The rage hit then, a bottomless pool of pure animal rage that refuses to give in, to give up. Sound returned letting him hear the echo of his scream. With the return of sound came the return of sight and, as if seen from a distance, a light appeared in the darkness. Cursing the name of every god he knew he used the rage to block the pain as he slowly and clumsily got to his feet. Stumbling and falling to his knees he painfully made his way towards the light only to be blinded by its brightness. The last of his rage disappeared along with the pain as he passed form the darkness into the light. It was such a relief he fainted so he never felt the hands that caught him as he fell or the sound of the voice telling him he was safe.

Confused blue-violet eyes blinked open, trying to remember where he was, who he was, and why it felt like he'd gone five rounds with a mobile suite bare handed. Slowly but surly his memory started to came back, unfortunately along with the returning memory came awareness of the pain. Before he could stop it a whimper escaped as he tried to sit up and get a better view of the room he was in. It was an interesting room, the walls where a nice soft white with what appeared to be writing half way up the wall that circled the room. The floor of the room looked like blonde ash that was so highly polished that Duo could see the individual grains in each board of the floor. For a moment he got lost in the fascinating designs and pictures that appeared in the wood. Shaking himself out of his daze he continued his examination of the room. The next thing that caught is eye was the window, and what a window it was, almost floor to ceiling and twice as wide as the average window. What made it truly unique was the fact that it wasn't covered in glass but some type of opaque substance that allowed the breeze in but kept any potential bugs or animals out. As he neared the window the covering slowly slides back and allowed him to see the outside garden in all it glory. Looking like a fifteenth century Japanese water garden it instantly put Duo at ease. Breathing deeply of the sweet air Duo looked to the sky to see if he couldn't get an idea of the time and about choked. The sky wasn't one he had ever seen before, it showed the faint out line of two moons and what was probably a close orbiting planet. Duo could feel the panic begin to set in. Refusing to give in he closed his eyes and took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds trying to calm down. Hearing movement to the right of the window frame he slowly turned his head and opened his eyes. Looking at what had to be the local equivalent of the common gecko Duo reached over to place it back outside. "That is probably not the best idea, young master," came a voice from behind him cause him to spin around and fall into a defensive stance. The man, and woman who stood behind him, smiled in amusement and gave Duo a few moments to gather himself. Relaxing his stance Duo looked the new comers over in curiosity. The man was tall and so was the woman, looking at them Duo couldn't help but think that something was out of place. Both had pale skin and dark, almost black colored hair, as well as, fine almost delicate features. The main was dress in a simple robe like outfit with the lighter under robe a sliver color and the heaver outer robe a light ice blue color. There was a symbol like tattoo under the man's right eye, possibly indicating a sign of rank. The female had her hair placed in a simple bun at the top of her head. She wore what looked like a silk kimono at had a picture of a crane on one side and a cheery tree on the other. Like the man her outer robe was a light ice blue color but her under robe was a pale shell pink that emphases the color of her eyes. It was then that Duo finally figured out what was wrong, their eyes where pitch black, no color, no white, no irises. Duo felt a chill slide down his back and felt his knees go weak, the odd thing of it was that it wasn't fear that he was feeling but one of joy, of relief of finally having found something he'd never knew he was missing.

"Come young master, you must be hungry, let's get you something to eat," said the man snapping Duo out of his daze, he nodded and stood to follow. Following the man and woman down a short hallway to an open room that only contained a small table with what looked like four floor pillows, with only three walls, one of which contained a small inset for what looked like a shrine flanked by two wall scrolls, the fourth being the porch of the house which gave one an open, and complete view, of the garden Duo had seen from his room. The man and woman sat to the left of the table as Duo looked around giving him time, once again, to take in his new surroundings. Blinking to try and take it all in Duo slowly sat on the opposite side of the man and woman. Tiling his head slightly to the side he finally asked, "Who are you? Why do you feel so familiar?" Introducing themselves as Lady Isis and Lord Asar, her husband, they explained to Duo how he had come to be with them and why they seemed so familiar to him.


	6. Chapter 6

The world as we knew it…

'Many years ago our world was a gateway to many, many other worlds and people. We learned, lived and loved together for many years and for many generations. Over two hundred worlds formed what we very simply called the collation of worlds. Over the many generations we learned many wonderful and frightening things. The first thing we learned was that there always had to be balance in what we did, we could not ask for a thing without giving something of equal value back. Through this we learned to become one with the very worlds we occupied and to use the power of the planet itself as well as every living thing on it. Our worlds were peaceful and our people happy. The downfall of our people came through this very power we had become so intertwined with. As the years and then the centuries had passed fewer and fewer of our children where being born. Our population dwindled and with our people dying the planets began to die with us. We then did the only thing that we could; we gathered our few remaining people and closed the gateways. Twelve planets are all we had left out of the hundreds we once lived upon, but still it was not enough. Our children where still few and far between and those that where being born did not show the talents of their parents, so we turned our sights to exploration and finding new bloodlines in the hope that we could be saved. To a certain extent our hope was realized and as we walked among the new worlds we found life once again filled our planets, but there was a balance to it all. Because we had become to powerful our children could not. One to two children in ten where born with the power of their parents. '

'The new worlds we had found formed the new world collation, but the second problem we faced was that of our children being unable to survive on our current worlds. The talents especially had a hard time of it for they had no connection they could call upon. So once again we turned to exploration only this time it wasn't working and we could find no world that could help, our children with talent began to get sick and die. Our children are our greatest joy, no matter how much knowledge or power we gained nothing could replace our need for our children, so watching our children become sick and being unable to help them drove many of us to desperate acts. Our darkest hour was upon us. In our grief over our children we forgot our earlier lessons of balance. We used force where diplomacy would have been better, we took what should have been freely given, we made demands we had no right to make and eventually it all took its toll. Our people and our planets had had enough and war broke out, famine and disease followed. Those that could escaped through the gateways and our people scattered. It took two generations before we recovered from the madness; it took another hundred years before all our people could be found.'

'When we found our people we where overjoyed for those that had fled where thriving as were their children. We also discovered that over the generations of contact with our people the children of the planet in general where developing talents of their very own. So we sent out a call to all talents to gather and come home to be taught the use of their talents and to once again join with their people. '

It was at this point Lord Asar paused in his tale to take a sip of his tea and to give Duo time to process all that he had heard. Nodding to show that he was ready for more Lord Asar continued, "Our next surprise came two years ago when one of our collection ships went missing. A few days ago it reappeared with one of our lost lines of people." It was at this point that Lady Isis smiled such a kind and joyful smile that Duo stopped in the middle of eating to look at her in surprise. "You are a progeny of that line Duo and Lady Isis and I are your progenitor that is way we feel so familiar to you." Duo choked on the rice he was eating and quickly took a sip of the tea they gave him. When he could breath again he gasped, "What! You want to run that by me one more time, please." Duo could swear the woman, Lady Isis, was laughing at him as she replied, "You are of my line, the line of Anu; sister line to Nag and Namtar." Duo said the only thing he could say after hearing that, "Uh?" causing both Lord and Lady to laugh.

Since they had finished their meal during their talk they decided to give Duo the rest of the day to think about what had been said so they offered to show him around instead. Duo's head spun as he tried to take it all in, the house, the grounds, the people, and even the sense and sounds where all so strange and overwhelming. Feeling the beginning of a headache forming Duo asked if he couldn't go back to his room for a nap, Lady Isis seeing Duo's wilting form agreed and asked one of the many servants they had seen that day to bring some tea to Duo's room as well. Watching as he was lead away she leaned against her mate as he put his arm around her, "I can't lose him Asar, not now, not after all this time." Kissing his wife on the head he hugged her tighter, "I know Shai neither can I, all we can do now is wait and pray that he is strong enough for the coming storm."

Duo sighed for what had to be the twelfth time. After his earlier nap he had rejoined Lady Isis and her husband for dinner where they stick to safer topics such as what the names of the dishes he was being served and teaching him a few of the local games involving memory and strategy. Duo was above average in both memory and being able to think circles around his appoint but Lord Asar was in a class by himself. All three spent the night laughing and just getting to know one another. So really it was no surprise that later that night after everyone had gone to bed that he was still up even though he was tired. He was also hot and too wired to go to sleep, he would no sooner kick the covers off then he'd start to freeze and need the covers again. Deciding enough was enough he got out of bed and started to pace, after stubbing his toe on the dresser twice he turned on the light and went to the bathroom to try and cool his face. A few minutes later feeling much refreshed he waked back into his room and finally noticed the water pitcher someone had left him. Some what amazed that the water was still cold he grab one of the cups on the try next to the water and poured a big glass, drinking it he went over to his window and leaned against the frame, grateful for any stray breeze that came his way. As he continued to sip the water he noticed it contained a slight spicy taste to it, sweet one moment and cool and refreshing the next, the last thing he remembered was thinking that he would have to ask Lady Isis what the drink was called.


	7. Chapter 7

A new life begins…

Max stretched as he got out of bed yawning and wondering what surprises his teachers had in store for him today. Walking into his bathroom he gave his face a quick wash and proceeded to wash his teeth. After that was done he sighed and looked at the mirror that he had been trying to avoid. Familiar tan features stared back but that's where all things familiar ended, the body was still whip cord lean and the eyes where the same blue-purple color, tending more towards purple now that he was older, but the hair, while only down to his hips, was white, pure white, like a bad dye job though Max as he flinched whenever he looked at his hair. His ears where a different matter all together and also the reason he keep his hair undone instead of in its usual style. They had reshaped into what Max considered elf ears, with an elongated upper ridge, his Lady Mother said they where a through back to their earlier ancestors and plenty of the more powerful talents had them. Max snorted as he brushed out his hair and braided the standard two forward braids, after that was done he then proceeded to gather the back half of his hair and wind it into its usual knot that was held in place by two hair pins which doubled into a weapon or a lock pick depending on the need. After that was completed he then pulled the earlier two braids back and clipped them into place. Sighing and leaving the bathroom to get dress he wondered if this time he would win the argument with Amen, the housekeeper, about having the mirror removed. He had no sooner though it then he started laughing, he would never win an argument with Amen, the woman was too stubborn by half, he didn't even think his Lady Mother could win an argument with Amen.

Sitting down to breakfast he bowed to his Lady Mother and Lord Asar and accepted the bowl of rice she passed him. Making a face Lord Asar commented on Max's outfit, "Jean's again? I don't know how you kids can stand to wear them." Max's moth twitched at the beginning of a familiar argument and winked at his Lady Mother before replying, "and I don't see how you old guys can stand going around in those long robes all day, one would think you'd appreciate a little support now and again." Lord Asar chocked on his drink causing his wife to giggle, seeing the twinkle in his son's eye he grunted and muttered, "Ungrateful brat." It was at this point the twins, Bakka and Baraka, came in. Both boys where typical of the Freeman Clan with dark hair and brown eyes they toped out at 5'5". The truly remarkable thing about them was the fact that they are twins. The Freeman Clan has never had a multiple birth in its entire two hundred and fifty year history. What most people didn't realize was that the twins shared a special link that enabled them to both learn multiple things at that same time. It was because of this that nine times out of ten the twins ended up in trouble with their teachers. They were practical jokers at heart and about as easy to nail down as jello. It wasn't until they meet Max that things seemed settle for them. Bakka and Baraka's parents worked at the temple Max's grandfather was the High Priest of and one day, after once again being dismissed from school for disrupting the lessons, while the twins helped their parents clean one of the shrines they felt something odd begin to happen. All day they had been twitchy and jumping at every sound and movement to the point that their parents sent them outside to calm down. As they walked around one of the gardens they where drawn to this one tree. In the trees branches they found a boy looking down at them in curiosity. After a moment of study the boy grunted, "damned know it all old man" looking at each other then back up at the boy Bakka and Baraka suddenly felt like everything was finally where it should be and both started to laugh causing the boy in the tree to laugh as well. Since then the twins have been Max's friend and shadow. It wasn't until much later that day when they had first meet Max that they found out that he had just came home from what his parents termed his "long, winding journey" what Max didn't tell either his parent or his friends was that he remembered his past and what his parents had done to try and ensure his transition into their society. The only people who knew are his grandfather and his captain, Auliya. He also understood why his parents did what they felt was for the best but some days he really wished that they would have just asked, so many things could have gone wrong if he had panicked and fought the storm.

Twenty minutes later all three came running out of the house laughing and trying to trip each other on their way to their classes. It wasn't much longer that they where soon joined by another boy, Kiswa. Kiswa had started life as a temple orphan. At only 5'4" Kiswa had pale gold skin, strawberry blonde colored hair and pale, pale blue eyes. Max was later told that Kiswa was what is considered a ghost because his entire clan had been wiped out by plague. Quite, shy, and too kind for his own good Kiswa soon found himself at the mercy of every bully the temple had. Max rescued him one day from some temple bullies that where beating him. Kiswa has followed him ever since. It wasn't until they reached the entrance of the school that they finally found the last member of their group, Auliya. The daughter of a prominent merchant she was as hard as Max was easy going. Auliya only ever truly relaxed when she was around her group, described as cold and uncaring Auliya saw no point in trying to prove that she had a softer side. At 5'7" with short black hair that seemed to curl around her face in a desperate attempt to give her a softer look. Cool green eyes, with a lean muscle build gave her more of a forbidding look then what her mother was originally hoping for when she cut Auliya hair to its current style. The rumor was that it took Max, who could usually charm anyone, six months to convince Auliya to talk to him let alone join his group. Ironically, it was Auliya who had to convince Max to form the group in the first place. Seeing Auliya at the gate was no surprise, seeing her so tense was, raising an eyebrow Max slowed his walk as Auliya joined them she spoke only loud enough for the group to hear, "The leads been given to Condor group" causing Max to stop dead in his tracks.

The school the talented children went to specialized in many things, one was in the training of Richese most specialized talented military. Depending on the children and the talents that they carried groups from two to eight formed, these groups then learned to do everything together from combat to riot control. Through this the groups could then develop into there best area. Some became general law enforcement while others developed into specialized hunter-combat teams. Only once in the schools long history have they ever failed to find a place for their talented children. The school's headmaster was truly at a loss about what to do about Lady Isis's son Max. Given the child's past history both the headmaster and his parents though it would be best to place Max in the military program and for all intense and purpose it worked. Max took to the training and exercises like a duck to water; the only problem was that he had no group. Max was too talented for most groups to handle and his family to powerful to insult by refusing to train the Lady's son. Picking up the letter he had just received he read it once again in hope that its content had magically changed. The Freeman Clan, a merchants daughter, and an orphan, what the High Priest was thinking letting the clan heir dally with orphans and trades people was beyond the headmaster, but to then get a group out of them, even if it was done by mistake was unheard of. The group was young enough that it maybe possible to brake and put Max on the proper track of finding a group with talented children at the school. Nodding to himself the headmaster picked up his pen and began a note to Wallach, the teacher in charge of the training for the newly formed groups.

Auliya grabbed Max by the arm and dragged him to the nearest corner with the rest of the group following. "Max," she hissed trying to get his attention, "Max snap out of it!" The grass under their feet started to die and the wind started to pick up. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching Auliya swore softly, knowing there was only one thing she could do to calm Max down. The crack of flesh meeting flesh seemed to echo in the dying wind. "Ow," was the only thing said causing the twins to snicker and Auliya to sag in relief. Kiswa, who had kept look out for the group, turned and voiced the question that they all had, "Their trying to break us aren't they?" Max nodded and did his breathing exercises to try and calm down. The group knew exactly what they where getting into when they had agreed to form, Max's grandfather made sure of that. Because Max is from such a prominent family it was expected that once he started school he would naturally form a group with other prominent children. Added to that was fact that Max's talent was the strongest many families and clans hand seen in generations. After the first year and no group was formed not to many people where worried, it was what some expected what with as talented as Max was that it would take into the second or possible third year before he found a group. By the fifth year people where truly worried that Max had found no group, they had never before seen a single unit. What most people didn't realize was that Max did have a group and had had one since the middle of his first year, but because his group wasn't talented or made up of high ranking children they where not allowed into Max's program so the groups training was handled by Max's grandfather. For the past four years the group had grown into a powerful hunter-combat team with each member specializing in their own unique field, Auliya is the group's captain and weapons expert, Bakka and Baraka are the communications and infiltration experts as well as the groups two sergeants, Kiswa surprised everyone and became the groups demolitions expert and its Lt., Max became the groups Commander. At the start of the fifth year Max's grandfather finally arranged for the rest of Max's group to be entered into Max's school warning the young people exactly that they where headed for at the school. There are three top groups currently at the school. The group in the number one slot was Max's Reapers, second position was held by the local school bully Che-su's Condor group, and third position was held by Gama's Raiders group. Che-su hated Max and his group and he really hated the fact that people he considered beneath him held a higher position then his group did. Max had caught Che-su picking on the younger kids before and things had not turned out well for Che-su, unfortunately because Che-su came from as powerful a family as Max he couldn't be expelled just reprimanded and a note put into his file. The only good thing about it was because of his disciplinary problems Che-su was almost guaranteed to get a post in the middle of no where. Today's exercise would be the first time Max and his group worked together at the school. It would also give Che-su a chance to hurt Max's group. Auliya swatted Max on the shoulder when she saw him start to get worked up again. "Who's second string?" Max asked after doing a few more of his breathing exercises. "Gama," answered Auliya, "but you know she's too nice to pull position." Max nodded, "Who's Che-su captain?" "His sister Cho-nii," Auliya replied as they started working their way to their groups HQ. As they began to dress for this morning's exercise Max began to smile, seeing this the twins shared a grin and Auliya groaned, closed her eyes an offered a quick prayer to the gods, both big and small. "Just leave the school standing, Max," was the only thing she said as she finished getting ready. The twins watched as Max sundered over the Kiswa and put his arm around his shoulders, "Tell me Kis do you still have any of that fast stick gel you and Uncle made?"

It took the school five hours to get the Condor group unstuck from each other as the glue they had been covered with had soaked through their clothes and every time they though they got the group unstuck they ended up stuck back together somehow. By the time the last of the glue had been dissolved the mornings exercise was over and Max's Reapers had come out on top. Wallach later reported to the schools headmaster that he had never seen a group work so well together and that while he appreciated the headmaster's feelings on such a group the headmaster was no longer permitted to interfere in the teaching exercises of the groups.

And the wheel turns…

Lady Isis walked into her father's room to have her ritual afternoon tea with her father. Kneeling on the pillow provided she gave her father a small bow and accepted the cup of tea he handed her. Both enjoyed the quite as well as each other company knowing that both would soon be back to their own duties. Seeing the frown on his daughters face Gea hid his smile behind his tea cup waiting until his daughter chose to speak of her problem. "He's leaving me and I don't think that this time he'll come back," Lady Isis said softly. She heard her father snort in amusement and turned to scowl at him, "its not funny father, am losing my son, your grandson." "Children are supposed to leave the nest Shai," replied her father calmly causing the scowl on her face to deepen. "He's the best team leader we have, he knows these humans, plus he has connections to the new world not one of the other lines has," her father continued softly, "Max will always be your son and my grandson but he needs this above all." Lady Isis looked at her father sharply, "above all else?" Her father nodded, "above all else, bi-la kaifa." Lady Isis sighed, nodded and went back to sipping her tea.

Later that night Lady Isis sent a pray to the gods begging them to look after her son and his group and to bring them all home.


	8. Chapter 8

And the pieces make a picture…

Max and his team waited for Drake and his group to join them before pushing in any further; taking another glance at his tracer he noticed one of the preventer teams was in trouble. Singling his team to stay and wait for Drakes group he headed over to help the group that was pined. Silently and swiftly he made his way behind the rebels. Taking a second to note all the rebels' positions he quickly unlimbered his sniper gun. Made of a lightweight material the gun was easy to both assemble and break down, while capable of using traditional bullets Max's gun also had the special ability to gather surrounding air particles and shoot them at high velocities. Slowly he took a breath, sighted down his gun and fired, by the time he exhaled all five rebels' where dead. Later all the trapped preventer team could report is that it was like the rebels just suddenly dropped dead.

By the time Max had rejoined his group Drake and his team where ready to begin their sweep. Indicating that Max and his team should take the right hand corridor and Drake and his group would take the left they split up and began to hunt.

Sgt. Wilson considered himself one of preventer's best communications officers, if you needed to find a targets intel line he was your man, if you need information on the people you where dealing with, Sgt. Wilson could find it, there wasn't anything he hadn't heard or read that had the ability to surprise him any more but what was happening to the rebels and to the unknown lines that kept appearing and disappearing was about to drive him insane. He would no sooner get a bead on the rebels then their communications would go down, by the time the sweeper teams arrived the rebels where dead. The ghost lines that keep jumping on and off his radar where lines of communications he had never seen or heard of which made him want to pull his hair out. The teams that where caught outside by the surprise attack would no sooner call in for back up then seconds later no longer need it as the rebels where dead. The rebels themselves where also in a panic, yelling about monsters in the shadows and the deadly wind. It was at this particular point that the doors to command center blew inwards taking out the two door guards. Ten rebels poured in waving their guns and demanding that everyone get on the floor. Sgt. Wilson, like everyone else, dived to the floor when the doors blew so what happened next nobody was quite clear on. The lights had gone out with the initial explosion, plunging the room into temporary darkness. The backup lights kicked on seconds later but by then two of the rebels where down, both with their throats cut. Time paused as both the rebels and preventers tried to make sense of what happened. Sgt. Wilson would later swear that he heard a growl before the remaining eight rebels where swallowed by the shadows in the room. The sharp smell of blood was soon noticed and as the secondary generators finally kicked in the lights came on banishing the shadows but leaving a nightmare in there wake. Sally, one of Sgt. Wilson's techs, started to scream and several of the communication officers started to throw up, by the time Lady Une's clean up crew came communications had been down for twenty minutes and the ghost lines Sgt. Wilson had noticed at the start where no longer there.

Quatre noticed that twenty minutes had passed since the sound of an explosion had been heard and the diplomats from Richese and so radically changed. Seafon, the man Ambassador Drake had left to guard them, radio crackled to life once more catching Quatre's attention, "Fire team alpha inbound in three" "Roger that, Fire team," answered Seafon has he slowly relaxed and holstered his gun, "welcome mat is out and waiting." Seafon turned to find a highly perturbed Quatre and Relena looking at him in annoyance. Seafon's lips twitched in amusement as he ignored the two and proceeded to put his robe back on silently giving thanks that he would not be the one to have to explain all that had occurred. Mean while Quatre gave serious contemplation to throwing something at Seafon as the Tleilaxion refused to answer any of his questions. As he eyed the flower vase set on the table in the corner of the room the other diplomats returned, as he watched them dress Quatre had to admit that after what he had just seen he wasn't quite sure they where all that diplomatic.

Max and his team made it back to the ship with no one the wiser that they where even there. Quickly they stored their weapons and watched as the twins settled into their terminals. The twins dived into the information stream and started tracking the mouse they had released earlier. Finding the mouse hole left behind they started their scan. As the twins went fishing Max and the others sent out their own avatars into the data stream acting as a secondary warning for the twins. Fifteen minutes later the twins pulled out, with the rest of the team following, carefully covering their tracks as they went but leaving the mouse hole open. Max did a quick visual check on his team, especially the twins, as they exited their terminals. Seeing that they where all ok Max breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed his tired eyes. Looking at Auliya he nodded his head at the twins as his lips twitched with a smile. Seeing her Commanders expression Auliya rolled her eyes and got up to help the twins to the break room for something to drink and to get them something for the headache they no doubt where already developing. Max snorted at the twins antics as they followed his Captain out of the room then turned to look at Kiswa. "Well come on old man we've got important information to look through, rebels to terrorize and a world to save," said Max waving his Lt. to the terminal next to him where they began the painful process of trying to figure out what the rebels where up to next.

Meanwhile, Lord Dread was trying to figure out what exactly to tell the human diplomats as Max had already indicated that the blond boy, Quatre, had a talent that could detect lies and many other strong emotions. Dread sighed and started the long explanation, "First off I'd like to apologize for leaving so abruptly but as you no doubt heard there was a problem that needed to be taken care of." At this Quatre, and surprisingly Relena, snorted. Dread smiled slightly at the noise and continued, "Secondly, the reason we choose to help as we did was due to the simple fact that we were not sure if we could trust you. As you are no doubt aware relations between our two peoples are not at their best and then when our houses where raided and then two of our more important members where held without notice or explanation well you can see why we felt the way we did." Seeing the mix of surprise and confusion on both the young diplomats faces Dread raised an eyebrow in question, "Surly you knew of this, it was authorized by your very own Preventer group." "Am sorry Minister but we truly have no idea of what it is you are speaking of, as far as we knew you had requested that your people withdraw from talks with our diplomats," Relena said causing Dread to smile once again. "Yes, we realized this after we talked to our Princes cousin. After he had read the reports he said it seemed likely that someone was purposely trying to cause mistrust between our two peoples so it was suggested that I and my team look into things. It was while we were in route to this meeting that one of our hunter-combat teams detected an anomaly within the signal we were receiving from you." At this Quatre put his arms on the table and calmly said, "Minister we were not sending you a signal." Dread nodded in agreement, "We realize this Mr. Winner, in fact we were counting on it." At that little announcement Quatre seemed to sit up starter, "you used this meeting as bait, didn't you Minister?" It was at this point Lord Dread smiled, and this smile had a lot of teeth, "Yes, in a sense, only the bait, as you put it wasn't you, it was me and the Prince's cousin followed by the head of the Preventer organization, Lady Une. You and Ms. Peacecraft where considered secondary targets. The signal we received contained a virus in it designed to cause an overload of all our systems, thankfully our hunter-combat team contained it and where able to back track it to its source, infiltrate their system and find out what they had planned." "That would have led to war," said Relena a little shakily. At this Lord Dread seemed to deflate and become a man that hadn't had enough sleep, "Am afraid your misunderstanding something Ms. Peacecraft. Our Prince's cousin is also the only heir to our world's most powerful religious clan; he is also one of our most powerful talents. As you know from what we have told you our children are most important to us, children with talent, especially children with a powerful talent are almost revered. If he had died in the attack and it was made to look like humans had done it, it wouldn't simply have been war, it would have been genocide for your entire race." Relena paled and Quatre rubbed his temple, he could already feel the headache coming on, "Then why may I ask did you feel the need to bring such an important person with you." Dread's tired bark of laughter gave Quatre the idea that Minister Dread had been asking himself that same question for some time, "Because he also happens to be the leader of one of our most effective hunter-combat teams, beside which as he put it the bigger the bait the bigger the fish it draws."


	9. Chapter 9

As the days roll by…

The hand on the bed twitched and the nurse paused in her work. The hand twitched once again causing the nurse to jump in surprise. "Mr. Maxwell," she said attentively stepping closer to the bed and reaching out a hand to shake him, "Mr. Maxwell can you hear me?" She had enough time to see the patient's eyes snap open before she went flying over the bed and into the wall, causing pain to radiate up her arm. The nurse's yell and the sound of crashing equipment brought the head nurse and two orderlies into the room. Taking it all in at a glance the head nurse said, "Boys help Shirley to x-ray to have that arm looked at." Watching them leave she turned to the patient and asked, "Mr. Maxwell do you know who I am?" The patient looked at her and blinked in confusion before answering, "Nurse." The head nurse smiled and carefully walked towards the patient, "That's right am Nurse Brown and your at County General." The patient, Maxwell, closed his eyes, trying to remember the last couple of days. "How long have I been here?" he asked coming up blank on the last few days. "About five days," she replied handing him a cup of water and helping him to sit up. Taking a drink he asked, "What's the damage?" Nurse Brown looked at him in silence for a few minutes before answering, "Perforation of the kidneys, three broken ribs, partial collapsed lung, two broken fingers on your right hand, sprained wrist, and a couple of torn ligaments. Frankly Mr. Maxwell am surprised your still alive." Maxwell grunted and closed his eyes, taking this as her queue to leave, Nurse Brown quickly walked to the nurses station and made the requested call, "The patient is awake" and quietly hung up the phone.

A few days later the patient, Maxwell, signed the last of the release forms and headed for the nearest door. Nurse Brown watched him leave and couldn't help but remember the dozen of other scars that coved his body. 'Nobody that young should have to be in that much pain' she thought as she turned to check on the other patients. Putting on his shades Max stepped outside the hospital doors and drew in a deep breath before looking around for the cab he had called. Somehow he wasn't really all that surprised to see the Preventer leaning against his car, waiting to give him a ride. As he slowly walked towards him he couldn't help but mutter a few choice words about noisy ex-friends and pain in the ass busy bodies. Stopping in front of the Agent he nodded his head in acknowledgement, "Barton."

Trowa Barton, at the age of 23, had though he had seen it all, a living dead man was new, however, and as he looked at the man he had though dead for the past five years he couldn't help but think that death agreed with his one time friend. Tiling his head to the side he looked at all the changes that had occurred to his friend and for some unknown reason couldn't help but feel that he had lost him all over again. "Your not Duo Maxwell are you?" he asked and the apparition smiled Duo's gamine smile and laughed, "Names Max, Agent Barton it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Trowa smiled sadly and shook his hand, excepting that the friend he once know no longer existed. Getting into the car Trowa drove them to the nearest Preventer headquarters where the man now know as Max could contact his own team and check in with his own people. As he parked the car Trowa asked the one question he had been curious about since he had first heard about Max, "Are you going to let the others know?" The almost cruel like smile that crossed Max's lips had the hair on the back of Trowa's neck standing up and a cold chill shot down his spine, "Others, Agent Barton? If by that you mean my team they already know where I am," Max turned to look out the window of the car, "in fact I do believe that's them now." It was at this point Trowa finally noticed the small dust cloud that was forming out in front of Preventer headquarters. Looking up he saw what looked like a piece of the sky falling, as the object drew nearer its seemed to resolve itself into what appeared to be a small ship. Sleek in design, black in color, and so quite only the dust cloud caused by its landing gave it away. As the ship landed Max and Trowa got out of the car and started walking towards it. Trowa stopped a few yards away while Max continued on. The side of the ship opened and a ramp extended towards the ground, Trowa saw the figure of a woman smile and welcome Max back as he boarded the ship and just before the door to the ship closed Trowa saw two more figures jump on top of him, hug him, and rub his head in greeting. Once again Trowa felt sadness as he watched the ship ascend into the sky. Once again his friend was taken from him but this time, Trowa decided, he wasn't going to let him go without a fight even if Duo "Max" Maxwell though otherwise. With his mind made up he turned and headed into the Preventer office, he had a few phone calls to make and one Foreign Vice Minister to talk to.

Max exhaled in relief at seeing his team once more. It had been hard these last couple of weeks between the fighting and the hiding it was almost like old times, only this time he was hiding from people who he used to fight with. Silently he watched the tiny figure of Trowa on the monitor of the ship, hoping against hope that Trowa would just let it go but already knowing he wouldn't. Before the image was lost Max saw Trowa turn and walk into the building behind him and grunted, half in annoyance and half in humor, already imaging what a certain little blonde would have to say about the news he was about to receive. As he turned to head back to his team a smile crossed his face at the thought of Dread being tied to a chair and interrogated by four former terrorist.


	10. Chapter 10

Explaining the past…

Dread rubbed his eyes and once more tried to focus on the report in front of him. Finding his attention wondering once again he sighed and put the report down. Deciding to take a break he pushed back from his desk, got up, and walked to the in office bar. Grabbing a bottle of water he walked over to the office window and leaned against the frame while he looked out. As he sipped the water he thought over all that had happened to Max and his team. It had only seemed a few days ago that he and his colleges had sat in the meeting with the two young diplomats as he tried to think of what to tell them without telling them too much. After explaining the raid and the necessity of using Jon's cousin as bait to draw out the rebels things seemed to settle, while Dread was sure that both Quatre and Relena had other suspicions, fortunately for all concerned they had no proof of any involvement of any kind. It was during this conference that Max and his team, having infiltrated both Preventer and the rebel data bases, had come across several anomalies. Several of the supposed top secret preventer operatives as well as some of the rebel operations had been compromised by what looked like an outside source. Someone was playing both sides against the other, but for what purpose was unknown. Neither side had any common goal or top secret project they were trying to accomplish, as far as Max and his team could tell it wasn't even anyone from the black-market that supplies either the rebel or the preventers with weapons. Dread sighed once again and took another sip of the water. Max and his team had decide that since the information was still so lacking they would take the 'piss'em off till they come after you' approach. They then proceeded to supply the preventer's with anonymous tips and while the Preventer's took care of the rebels the team helped out the preventer operatives that had been made.

Over the ensuing weeks Max and his team had rescued dozens of the preventer operatives with little to no problem; it was only in the last few days that things had taken a turn for the worse. Whoever it was that was running things from behind the scenes had gotten wise to Max's interference and had laid several traps for both the preventer's and Max. Max had lost several preventer teams to unexpected ambushes or incomplete information and Max's team hadn't faired so well either. While the UEO and the Preventer organization knew of the hunter-combat teams Dread and his colleges had brought not everyone was as receptive to their help, especially as it seemed that the mere presence of a hunter-combat team almost guaranteed that some of the preventer's would die or get hurt. Twice Max and his team had to be put on medical down time for receiving wounds from "friendly fire" but it was this last attempt that had Dread wanting to issue challenge. Max and his team had been called in for a simple extraction of a pined team only to have commander of the team turn on Max; as Max's team laid down a suppressing fire to give the traped team a chance to reach safer ground the commander ignored Max's order to retreat. It was at that point the rebels set off the bombs, causing the old abandoned warehouse they were in to collapse killing the preventer team and landing Max in the hospital for five days. Dread shuddered thinking how Max's Lady Mother would have received the news that her son had died because the human's where being stupid.

Thankfully that train of thought was cut short by a knock at his door. Turning he called for the person to enter and was surprised at the agitated state his sectary, Emil, was in. "Minister you have a couple of guest that insist on seeing you right away," she said clearly upset, "I tried to tell them that you were busy but they were instant." "Who is it, Emil?" Dread asked wondering just who it was that could upset his normally unflappable sectary so. "It's that young Mr. Winner and two Preventers by the name of Chang Wufie and Trowa Barton." Dread grunted suddenly understanding why she was so upset, Emil was Max's Aunt via the sister line and like the rest of the compound blamed the humans for Max getting hurt. Sighing for what felt like the hundredth time that day he walked back over to his desk and nodded for his sectary to show in his guest. As Emil showed them in he noticed that the two preventer's where out of uniform and that the young blond looked ready for battle. Senescing that what they were here for was unofficial made it easier for Dread to guess what this was all about. It was at this point something strange took a hold of Dread and he suddenly found himself entirely uncooperative. Smiling he held out his hand in greeting, "Mr. Winner, a joy to see you again. I hope things are going well for you and your family." "Minister," replied Quatre shaking the offered hand and giving Dread a hard smile in return, "I believe you know my two companions, Agent Chang and Agent Barton" Dread switched his attention to the two agents, "I've heard a lot about you two but I've never had the privilege of meeting you." Nodding to the chairs before him he indicated that they should all have a set, "So what can I do for you today, Mr. Winner?" "You can explain to me why you've convently left out the fact that you happen to have a highly trained special earth operative on one of your teams," snapped Quatre, "and why we were not notified of his teams presents on this planet." Dread grinned, "I don't quite recall how this is any of your business Mr. Winner. As far as I know we, as diplomats from a foreign planet, are under no obligation to tell you anything we deemed you did not need to know." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Agent Chang visibly bristle, "Besides which, as you already well know, we do not have humans on any of our teams, diplomats or otherwise." Quatre sat back and studied the Minister in silence before pulling a picture from an inner pocket in his jacket, "Do you know this man Minister?" he asked softly laying the picture on Dread's desk. Picking up the picture he carefully studied the two young men shown, one young boy was the blonde Quatre and standing next to him with his arm around his shoulder, laughing was a young brunette not much older than Quatre at the time the picture was taken. Studying it for a few moments longer he handed the picture back, "Am sorry Mr. Winner but I have no idea who this is."

Ironically, it was a short ways down the hall from the Minister's office that the man in question was currently getting his final check up to be cleared to return to duty. Giving his patient one last look over the Doctor nodded to Max, "It looks like your good to go Max. Everything checks out fine." Max grinned as he sat up and put his shirt back on, "Am clear for the gym as well?" The Doc snorted, "Only you would call that death trap a gym, Max" Max grinned at the look of annoyance on the Doc's face, "Yes, you're clear to resume all normal activity." "Woo hoo," replied Max as he go down off the table and bounded out the door already planning his workout and wondering if he could talk the twins into joining him. The Doctor chuckled at Max's exuberance and finished making his notes in Max's file. After putting away the file and cleaning up the office he walked down the hall to Minister Dread's office to give him and Emil an update on how Max was doing. Smiling in greeting as he entered the office he said, "Hello Em is Dread available?" Emil shook her head, "He's in a meeting now. Is there anything I can do for you?" "It's not important Em, just an update on Max," the Doc replied. Emil perked up and asked, "He's ok now?" The Doc chuckled, "He's just fine, back to his usual mischievous self. In fact, he headed to the workout room as soon as I cleared him." That little announcement earned him a quite laugh from Emil and an agreement that she would pass the information to the Minister once he finished his meeting. Waving good bye the Doc left and continued with his day.

Inside the Minister's office silence rang at Dreads announcement that he didn't know the boy in the picture. It was at this point that Agent Barton spoke, "How about if his hair was white and he was a little taller and wider through the chest?" Dread leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands, "Agent Barton if you had not noticed white hair is not that uncommon in our compound nor is the height so unless you can be more specific I have no idea as to who you may be talking about." "Goes by the name of Max," he replied refusing to be put off any longer. Dread looked at them in silence before sitting up and reaching for the phone, "Emil could you come in here for a few moments please?" Hanging up the phone he sat back and waited for his sectary. He watched as the three men in front of him looked at each other in question as they waited for the Minister's sectary. When the door opened all four men looked towards it, watching as the Minister's sectary entered the office. "Em," said Dread by way of greeting, "it seems Mr. Winner and his friends are looking for information on your nephew." Emil raised an eyebrow in question as she turned to look at the three men mentioned, "Oh? What could a couple of human's possibly want with Max?" Dread could have sworn the temperature in the room had dropped to freezing with his sectary's question. Surprisingly no one seemed to take offense as Quatre handed Emil the picture he had recently shown the Minister. Emil took the picture but said nothing as she waited for someone to answer her question. This time it was Agent Chang who answered, "Before he was taken from us he was our friend and part of our family. Now we find that what we had thought we had lost had now been returned to us and we would like a chance to have our family back." Emil looked at them in silence before looking down at the photo she was holding, seeing the smiling faces looking back. "You cannot have him back," Emil said softly returning the picture to Quatre, "your time has come and gone. Taqwa has already been demanded and paid, Max is all that remains." Both Dread and his sectary could see the sadness this caused the young men. Standing Dread asked, "Emil do you happen to know where team Reaper is?" "Probably in the workout room, the Doctor said that's where Max was headed after he got the all clear," answered Emil with a slight smile on her face. Dread turned to look at Quatre and his friends, "Come Mr. Winner, while I am sorry we were unable to help you in locating your friend I will introduce you to our top hunter-combat team and hopefully they can explain to you a few of the things they do." Dread saw the young men visibly relax and Quatre smile as they followed him out the door.

The workout room was aptly named. In its resting state it appeared as a simple gray room with twelve by eighteen size squares covering every available surface. It was only when one entered the control room that one gained an appreciation for what the room was truly capable of. The room could convert into any type of room requested, be it a simple weight room to a more complex battle ground simulation, if you could think it up the room could reproduce it. Many people in the compound turned green at the mere though of Max's idea of a work out so you can image Quatre's and the two visiting preventer agents reaction when they finally saw what exactly it was that made Max and his team the best. Dread, having already known that the room would be busy had automatically lead the visiting party to the observation room where they had a good view of what was going on inside the workout room. Dread smirked when he saw Quatre go pale at what he saw.

Max had managed to talk the entire team into joining him in the workout room and as a result had requested a split room. On one side Auliya and the twins stood on a thin bridge no wider than two feet over an open pit of razor sharp rocks. For their opponent the twins had requested a type of laser hover disk that reacted to movement, the object was to stay balanced, protect your partner, and disable the hover disks and the only weapons they had where wooden staffs. Auliya was so going to have a talk with her commander when she got out of this, right after she finished beating the shit out of the twins for requesting this whole thing. On the other side of the room Kiswa and Max balanced on what Max cheerfully called his "wooden castle", several beams of wood, all of various sizes, shapes, and distance from each other, where grouped in a rough square shape. The object of the game was to defeat your appoint with in a set time, to add to the difficulty for each three minutes that pass without a winner a random pole was taken out of the square, above them floated five hover disks that, like Auliya's and the twins, reacted to movement. Auliya winched as she saw Max take a particularly nasty blow from Kiswa staff as he turned to quickly take out an approaching disk and wondered once again how such an innocent looking person could enjoy Max idea of a workout so much. Turning her attention back to her own work out she quickly took out a hover disk of her own thoroughly convinced she was the only sane person on her team.

As the team continued with their practice up in the observation room Dread explained what it was the team was doing and named the people on the team, giving them their history and all that the team has accomplished. He saw a smile cross Quatre's face when Dread told him about the pranks Max use to play on the headmaster at the school he and his team went to and he heard Agent Chang snort in amusement when told about the continuous stick glue he had used on one of the teams that was harassing one of the younger students. Thankfully it was at this point that the practice come to an end and the workout room was resetting itself into its standered rest position. Before the team could exit Dread pushed the intercom button and asked for them to join him in the observation room, releasing the button he turned to look at his visitors, "You realize this will not be pretty and that Max may not even be receptive to what you may have to say to him." Quatre nodded, "but we have to try Minister." Dread nodded his understanding and turned as the door open reveling a laughing Max with one of his arms around the neck of Kiswa and the other waving wildly as he finished telling a joke to Auliya, causing everyone in the group to laugh at the punch line. It was as he turned to the people in the room that Dread truly began to wonder if any of them would be able to leave the room in one piece. Auliya, thankfully, was quick to take in the situation and nodded for the twins to make nice while she and Kiswa grabbed Max and dragged him out of the room.


	11. Chapter 11

Starting anew…

Auliya silently cursed Dread to seven kinds of hell as she and Kiswa quickly dragged Max from the room before he could do something he wouldn't regret. Standing in the hall they waited tensely for Max to calm down before asking him what he wanted to do. Finally after taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly Max looked at Auliya who folded her arms over her chest, refusing to give him an easy out. Max grunted and leaned against the hallway wall, not bothering to answer Auliya unvoiced challenge. Kiswa, meanwhile, looked at the silent communication happening between his captain and commander and wondered what it was that he had missed. Auliya, deciding that her commander was entirely too stubborn for his own good, turned to Kiswa and casually asked, "Did you happen to notice who was in the room with Dread?" Kiswa, eyeing his captain uncertainly, replied, "Yeah, it was Quatre Winner and two Preventer agents, Change Wufie and Trowa Barton, I think." Auliya smirked, "Very good. Did you also happen to know that they were part of the commander's old combat team?" The look of shock on Kiswa face was enough to surprise a laugh out of Max and break the silent contest between him and his captain. Max rubbed his face tiredly, "What, the name of the seven levels of Hell, was Dread thinking." Auliya grunted, "Not a hell of a lot from what I can tell." Max snorted in agreement. Kiswa looked on in confusion, "I don't get it, why are you not happy to see your old team?" Max looked at his captain as if to say 'see what you started', Auliya replying look was simple, something along the lines of 'piss off, you should of told the kiddies weeks ago, it's your own damn fault'. This time it was Max who grunted annoyed that his captain was right, again. Auliya smirked in triumph and turned to explain things to Kiswa, "Max giving up his old team was the price the gods demanded for his freedom, his taqwa. Dread knows this but it looks like he's pushing the issue for some reason." "Damn man been with the humans to long, gotten all sentimental on me," muttered Max when Auliya paused for breath. Choosing to ignore her commander she continued with her explanation, "However Max's Grandfather believes that thanks to the mutation in the commander's cousin line that Max should be able to find talent on this planet if he reestablishes his old ties. My bet is Lord Gea told Dread this and that's why he's doing this." Kiswa's eyes got big at the thought that his commander could become more powerful and turned to look at Max in amazement only to find him sulking and muttering obscenities about good for nothing busy body old men. Kiswa turned green at one of the suggestions Max made about Dread and something called a goat, "is any of that even possible?" he asked in a whisper to his captain as the pair of them silently watched their ranting commander.

Inside the observation room things weren't quite so humorous. Just before Max had been pulled out of the room Quatre and his two friends and seen how mad the person they once knew as Duo Maxwell had gotten, and surprisingly how tense Minister Dread became. "Well why Max and his team talk things out I would like to introduce you to the other two members, Bakka and Baraka, the teams communication and infiltration experts," said Dread after Max's abrupt departure, "Gentlemen the two men in front of you are Preventer's Chang Wufie and Trowa Barton, next to whom is one of the earth diplomats Quatre Winner." The twins, to say the least, where not impressed. After spending weeks bailing one preventer group after another out of trouble it did not endure the twins to the two preventers, even if they where former war heroes. And the human diplomat, who was most unimpressive by freemen clan standers, was almost guaranteed to be a pain in the ass just by the sheer fact he was a) human and b) a diplomat. Dread, knowing the twins as he did, knew some of what they were thinking and feeling and wondered how his visitors would respond. Quatre smiled in greeting, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Minister Dread has told us a little about your team but I'd like to hear a bit more about it and your commander. Dread tells me you're the best team he has." Dread saw the twins share a smile and sent a quick prayer to the gods that for once they would behave themselves. "Gentlemen please have a set as we wait for the commander and the rest of his team to come back; am sure the twins would be more than happy to tell you what you want," Dread said pointing to a couch and two chairs off towards the right of the observation rooms window. This surprised Quatre as he had not noticed this the first time he had entered the room. He took the time to actually look at the room as he and the other four men moved towards the lounge area. The room was done along simple line, using simple colors. The room was painted in a simple cream color with oak and ash highlights used in the furniture to add a touch of color. Quatre and his friends, being the larger of the two groups, took the couch, while the twins each took a seat in the chairs, while Dread went to the built in bar to offer drinks to everyone. "So tell me how you and your team first meet" said Quatre once everyone had received their requested drinks causing the twins to once more grin.

Outside Kiswa and Auliya were surprised out of their whispered conversation when Max suddenly straitened and turned to them with a determined look on his face, "I don't need or want more power. The Sadus barley know what to do with me as it is," it was at this point Max's face took on his innocent happy look, "so have fun showing the humans around and let me know how it went." With that he waved and turned to walk away, but before he could get very far his captain grabbed him by his collar, stopping him. Glaring at her commander Auliya shook her head at him, "Some brave leader you are. Come on Commander Chicken time to take it like a man." Kiswa grabbed Max's other arm and together he and Auliya frog marched Max back into the room where they found the twins talking to Dread's visitors. Max looked at his captain with a glare, "I really don't like you right now." Max's scowl deepened when he saw Auliya's lips twitch more in amusement then in fear as she and Kiswa dragged him further into the room.


	12. Chapter 12

Welcome to the other side…

Quatre sat at the table wondering once more were this would all lead to. It had been two weeks since Trowa had given him the news that Duo was still alive and he could still remember the day in question:

_Quatre had just completed reading the report on the latest attack on a Preventer team and the subsequent rescue by one of the Tleilaxion hunter-combat teams. He could see a disturbing pattern beginning to form in the relationship between the Preventer teams and the Tleilaxion teams and, Quatre suspected, it had something to do with what Minister Dread wasn't telling him. When the Minister had first told Quatre and Relena about using such a high ranking person as their own Sovereign's cousin as bait it had disturbed Quatre on a level he didn't even know how to respond to. On the one hand, form a satiric stand point, it made sense on the other hand to put the entire human race in jeopardy like that, without even warning them about it, was enough to make him grind his teeth. Quatre picked up the other report Rashid had just handed him, his suspicions confirmed. Taking nothing for granted and seeing a disturbing pattern forming Quatre had sent Rashid out to do his own type of digging and what he had found was in the report he had handed Quatre this morning. Reading it over Quatre felt a frown form at the questions it didn't answer. It was obvious that the Tleilaxion teams had broken into the rebel database and were feeding it to the Preventer's but that still did not explain the attacks on the Preventer teams. The timing of the attacks seemed to increase with the arrival of the hunter-combat teams seeming to indicate that whoever it was that was behind the attacks had something personal against the Tleilaxion's themselves, one team in particular seemed to garner the most direct attacks. Quatre idly wondered if that team was the one that had the Tleilaxion royalty on it that the Minister told them about. Quatre paled at the though and quickly grabbed the report he had read earlier. Scanning down to the part that talked about the Tleilaxion team whose commander had end up in a hospital thanks to the Preventer team leader refusing to follow a direct order and he noticed that it was the same team in Rashid report. For a moment Quatre felt his hart stop at the thought that his suspicions could be right and the cousin to the Tleilaxion Sovereign was in the hospital thanks to a Preventer team. Quatre made a mental note to himself to ask after this commander and to see if he couldn't confirm what he was thinking._

_Thankfully, it was at this point Trowa called. Quatre knew that Trowa was stationed in the area that the hospital the Tleilaxion commander had been taken to so it was a good chance to see if Trowa would mind playing diplomat for him and possibly getting him some answers. Quatre quickly lost his smile when he saw the determined look on his friends face. "Quatre, we have a situation," said Trowa without bothering to wait for a greeting. Quatre nodded, "Tell me." "I was on the rescue team that helped dig out the team that a building had collapsed on. One of the people we recovered belonged to a hunter-combat team; it was strange, the rest of his team wasn't there and you know they never leave one of their own behind. To find this one all alone was odd to say the least. It was only after I finished up at the site that I went to the hospital to see if I couldn't talk to the Tleilaxion and try and find out why he was by himself," Quatre saw Trowa lean closer to the vid screen as if he was about to say something important, "Quatre it was Duo." All though process stopped for Quatre and all he could do was blink at what Trowa had said. Even over the vid link Quatre could feel the mixed joy and confusion raiding off Trowa, as well as, the certainty that their friend was indeed alive. Quatre felt a smile break over his face as his own joy began to rise, "How is he? Is he ok? How did he look? Where has he been all this time?" A quite laugh from Trowa broke his happy rant, causing Quatre to blush giving Trowa time to answer at least one of the many questions he had asked. Quatre cocked his head to the side when he saw the sad expression cross Trowa's face, "What's wrong?" "Something's not right about him," Trowa replied softly, "I had the hospital call me as soon as he recovered and was able to leave, but what I saw wasn't him but it was somehow" Quatre raised an eyebrow in question, "Care to explain a little?" "The first time he saw me I could of sworn that he knew who I was but as he got closer something seemed to change, to become harder somehow," answered Trowa trying the best he could to say why Duo seemed so off, "when I tried to talk to him it was like I was talking to someone else and when I asked him about letting the rest of his old friends know it was as if I was suddenly sharing the car was a dangerous animal." Through his space heart Quatre could tell that what Trowa was telling him was, to him, the truth, but it was the unexpected stubbornness behind all that that had Quatre wondering about what happened after all this. "It's been five years Trowa, I can't expect a person to remain the same after all that time," said Quatre softly not wanting to hurt Trowa's feelings. Trowa nodded in agreement, "I realize this, but I saw him with his team when they came to pick him up and it was our Duo so my question is what happened to him and what do the Tleilaxions have to do with it?" Quatre nodded his head in agreement thinking it was just one more thing that the Minister had kept from them. It was at this point something that Trowa had said struck him as odd. As Trowa had pointed out you never find a single Tleilaxion, especially a single hunter-combat member, so why did Duo's team leave him in that collapsed building and how exactly did they know when and where to pick him up from. It was almost as if the Tleilaxions, and the Minister in particular, had planed the whole thing just to get their attention. The frown was back on Quatre's face as questions just led to more and more questions and, quite frankly, he was sick of being stonewalled by the Minister. It was time they got some straight answers, "Call the others and let them know what you've discovered, tell them to meet me at the Minister's office in three days time." Trowa nodded and signed off as Quatre sighed and leaned back in his chair. O yes indeed the Minister had some questions to answer._

Things seemed to go downhill from that point on. Heero was out on a deep undercover assignment so the only other one that could join them had been Wufie, who had been just as suspicious as Trowa, as to why the Minister had never told them about their friend. The meeting between them and the Minister didn't go well either. Quatre could feel the anger and sadness rolling off the Minister as they tried to get answers about their friend and it confused him as to why the Minister would be feeling such a strange mix of emotions. The Minister's secretary was another surprise they had never thought to come across as well. When they had first entered the Minister's office she had a neutral feeling to her as she greeted them and asked for their names, it was only after they had given them that the neutral feeling was replaced by one of anger and resentment. It was only after Dread had introduced her as Duo's aunt that things began to take a surreal twist. The Duo that they had known and loved was an orphan and had no living relatives; Max apparently not only had an aunt but also a mother and father waiting for him back on Richese. When Max's aunt told them that Duo was dead and that the only one left was Max Quatre began to understand what she was trying to say but he still wanted his friend back. The Minister must have seen this for he decided to take them to where Max and his team where. Quatre shivered once more just thinking about the training simulation he had seen and apparently that was the light version according to what he had see in the previous week. When they had first meet Duo, now Max, Quatre could tell that it wouldn't be easy and that the best way to get to Max would be through his team so he started talking with the twins as they where the easiest to get to know which would lead, in time, to the others. Surprisingly it was Max's second in command, Auliya that started the talk between her and Wufie that ended with Auliya laughing at the disgruntled expression on Wufie's face. Out of the corner of his eye Quatre saw Max's lips twitch in amusement at the two in the corner. For a brief moment in time Quatre felt hope that Max would let them back into his life, which was quickly squashed in the following days when every time they visited Max was convently busy. He had finally managed to corner Max just the other day in the mediation room and was completely awed by what he had seen.

_Following the directions one of the compounds workers had given him Quatre lightly taped on the door and waited for an answer. He was tired of being ignored by his one time friend so he had decided to "beard the lion in its den" so to speak. After receiving no reply to his knock and being assured that Max was indeed in his quarters he quietly opened the door and stuck his head in. Seeing that no one was around Quatre opened the door fully and stepped in to what looked like a living room. He silently studied the layout of the room hoping to gain an insight into Max's personality. The floor was a dark oak and the walls where covered in mahogany. In the center of the floor was a perfectly cut square that looked to be about a foot deep and eight feet wide. Around the outside of the square four red pillows sat; two on the left side and two more on the right side, in the center of the square was a fire pit. The walls had no pictures only two wall scrolls, on which something was written in Tleilaxion. In the right hand corner sat a golden shrine to one of the Tleilaxion death gods. Quatre felt a little sad with the starkness of the room after remembering all the times he had to yell at Duo to pick up his things that he had left lying around. Catching a flicker of light out of the corner of his eye Quatre noticed a doorway on the left hand side. Walking over to the doorway he couldn't, at first, make out what was happening as the room was completely dark. Slowly as his eyes adjusted to the difference he began to make out shapes in the darkness. Max was in the center of the room and around him on all sides where candles of all shapes and sizes, there and to be hundreds of the things some of which and already been put out making it even harder the see the remaining light candles. In the center Max was bear from the waist up, the lower half of his body was clothed in a pair of loose flowing pants that tied at the waist and created a breeze every time Max moved. In his hands Max held a pair of beautiful ebony fans one painted with cherry blossoms and the other painted with a dragon on it in gold. Quatre stood quietly and watched as Max seemed to do a type of dance, every twist and every turn he made in perfect harmony, not too fast and never too slow. For every movement made a candle in the outer circle went out. Quatre was struck by the beauty of it as he saw both the mental and physical concentration it took to slowly put out the different candles without putting out the ones in front or to the side of it. Quatre become mesmerized by Max's movements and didn't realize how long he stood there watching him before a voice from the darkened room pulled him from his trance, "Lights, forty percent." Quatre blinked at, what felt to him, the sudden brightness in the room. As his eyes readjusted he could hear Max snort in annoyance, "You are a persistent bastard I'll give you that." Quatre looked at him in confusion, not understanding what Max was talking about and then it hit him. Crossing his arms Quatre raised an eyebrow, "Well if you would talk to us I wouldn't have to be a persistent bastard now would I?" "Are you saying this is my fault?" Max asked in disbelief. Quatre only answer was to smile and hum in agreement._

Quatre snorted at remembering what came next. Before they could get much further in the conversation a page had come for Max asking him to report to the command center and that was that. Max was out on assignment and once more out of reach. To add to that Quatre had just received a report that Heero had missed his last two check-in times and was now considered MIA. Quatre rubbed his head in a futile effort to prevent the headache he could feel coming. Somehow Quatre suspected that Max's recent assignment had something to do with his other missing friend and secretly hoped that if the two ever meet that Heero would be ok and able to help Max reconnect with his old friends.


	13. Chapter 13

No good deed…

Max's team was on edge, something was coming, something big, and that something was affecting their commander. Auliya was the first to notice, the twins and Kiswa soon after. Max was acting strange ever since his old team had shown up. At first things and been fine, Max was being his usual stubborn self and ignored his old friends every attempt at reconciliation, Auliya smiled just thinking about it. The blonde, Quatre, wasn't one to take no for an answer that's for sure and the twins had taken an almost instant liking to Max's other friend Wufie. Auliya snickered thinking of the latest prank the twins had pulled on the poor preventer, how they got their hands on rovarian slime and so much of it was one question she really didn't want answered. Poor Wufie, fresh out of the shower and into a slime pit, and the word combinations he used just had to be illegal somewhere. Even Trowa wasn't immune to some of the pranks the twins would pull he just wasn't nearly as fun. She had even caught Max laughing at some of the pranks. Little by little, no matter how much Max resisted he was slowly reforming his ties with his old life and that was where the problems started. Auliya would come across Max staring off into space as if leasing to something other times he would twitch and jump at the slightest noise. Twice the team had to abandon its mission because Max would go into convolutions and it would take all four of them to carry him back. It was as if he was being over stimulated to such a degree his body was shutting down in self defense. The Doc and Dread had pulled them from active duty until they could find out what was making Max so sick. It wasn't until two days ago that they had learned of something even more disturbing. Whatever was over stimulating Max's system was also affecting his talent as well. Max's talent had always been emotion based but now it raged out of control, three fires and two explosions where enough to send Max to his mediation room trying to regain control. Auliya rubbed her eyes tiredly already having some suspicion as to what was causing Max's breakdown, which is why she had requested this simple recon mission from Dread. Through Auliya, Kiswa, and the twins Max's old team was slowly becoming closer to reforming it ties with Max the only problem was that Max's old team was incomplete, because of the way Max's talent took shape it takes four people to form a support for him, with the fourth missing the ties where incomplete. Heero Yui had been called away on a deep undercover mission when Quatre and the rest of Max's friends had discovered that he was still alive. This recon mission would hopefully bring Max into contact with his missing friend and help stabilize his talent. Auliya exhaled softly and prayed to every god she knew that Max's old friend would be there to help.

Inside the room where Max slept, unaware of the worry around him, he dreamed of the darkness and the voice that whispered of things best left unsaid. As he traveled further into the darkness lights began to appear, giggling and zooming all over, flashing like fireflies. Max smiled and reached out a hand to touch one that hovered near, the light giggled as Max touched it, soft and warm to the touch, the little light vibrated in joy. More of the lights gathered to Max as he softly tried to touch them all. Behind him the darkness formed itself into what looked to Max like a small black dragon that landed on his shoulder and wrapped its tail around his neck. The dragon snorted at the lights and rubbed its head under Max's jaw wanting its share of attention, Max giggled as one of the lights blew a raspberry at the dragon as he scratched it under its jaw. For the first time, in what felt like a long time, Max felt relaxed and happy, the voice still whispered but they weren't as fighting as before, as Max played with his new friends he listened to what the voice where saying and as he listened he learned.

On Richese the Lord High Priest eyes snapped open, pulled from a deep mediation he and his acolytes looked around in worry for all had felt the shift in power. Lord Gea looked to his acolytes and said, "Prepare the ships my grandson is going to need us soon." The acolytes nodded and scattered to spread the news of the impending blessing about to occur. The High Priest turn to find is daughter standing in the doorway, she too had felt the shift. She looked to her father worry, hope, and sorrow clouded her face. Lord Gea smiled in sympathy, trying to comfort his daughter but already knowing it was too late to do so. Standing he walked over to her, "Come it is time to prepare yourself to welcome your son home," he said while gently leading her from the room. Lady Isis looked at her father with wide, worried eyes, "There was so much power pulled, I've never felt so much of it before, I don't know if he can survive it." The High Priest smiled in amusement, "My grandson is much to bull headed to let a little thing like dyeing stop him." Lady Isis smiled and nodded her head in thanks; straighten her spin she stepped away from the support of her father, "There are things that need to be done, I will see you and my son when you both return." She turned and took the left hand path back to the house, as Lord Gea watched her leave he felt his own worry creep back. Refusing to give in he continued down the path already determined that no one, not even the gods where going to take his grandson without a fight.

Back on the ship Max's team was at the center of what felt like a bomb going off in their heads. Kiswa grabbed his head as the pain seared across the nerves, the twins, linked as they where were lucky, they passed out before the second shock wave hit. Auliya, caught standing when the shockwave hit fell to the floor as what felt like high energy voltage coursed through her body. What felt like an eternity passed before the pain receded enough for rational thought to begin once again. Rolling to her side Auliya throw up what little remained of her dinner. Using the wall for support she slowly got to her feet, turning her head in the direction of where the others where she called out, "Kiswa, guys, is everyone ok in there?" Kiswa groaned and hoped like hell his head wouldn't explode. Cautiously he opened his eyes and saw the twins passed out cold on the floor, "Twins are down but everyone is alive." Auliya breathed a sigh of relief, "I don't suppose you know what happened do you?" Kiswa closed his eyes before answering, "Not a clue. How's the commander?" "Don't know, I'll go check," said Auliya as she pushed away from the wall and staggered down the hall. Reaching the doorway she knocked and waited for permission to enter. Minutes passed with no answer, growing concerned that Max may have been hit the hardest Auliya opened the door and order the lights on full. Time stood still as Auliya saw Max sprawled on the bed not moving, "Max!" she yelled rushing to his side. The yell caused Max to sit up in surprise causing Auliya to stop a foot away from the bed. For a moment, she could have sworn Max's eyes were sold black, then he blinked and his eyes where once again normal. Shaking her head, Auliya tried to clear the last of the cob webs from her mind convinced she was seeing thing, "Are you ok?" Max blinked at her stupidly for a moment as tired brain cells tried to process what his Captain was saying. Falling back down onto the bed he rubbed his face, "What the hell's gotten into you, Al? I was sound asleep here. You about scared me half to death." This time it was Auliya turn to be confused, "You mean you didn't feel it?" Propping his self up on his elbow he looked at her in expiration, "Feel what?" Auliya rolled her eyes, "I don't know what it was but it took out everyone on this ship." Max eyebrow rose in disbelief before he got out of bed to dress. "Ok Al, show me what you're talking about," he said as he followed his Captain out the door. As she lead the way Auliya could have sworn she saw a dragon tattoo, wings spread the width of Max's shoulders and the tail disappearing down his back as he turned to get dress but she knew that couldn't be right, Max didn't have any tattoo's. Guessing she was just seeing things again she quickly forgot about it as she and Max began to check their team and their crew for any injuries while they tried to find out what exactly was going on.

It had been two days since the surprise attack on the ship and the crew was finally able to get around on their own without stumbling into each other or the walls. They were five hours out from their final destination and still had no answer as to what had cause the attack or if it even was one. Max team and the captain of the ship sat in the conference room discussing the last minute preparations for the recon mission they still had to run. "Due to the unstable storm system the planet holds the main ship itself will not be able to make a landing; you'll have to take in one of the shuttle pods. Also, the storms block out any and all incoming and outgoing signals. I've had my crew work on trying to boost the single for the past two days but so far they've had no luck," the Captain said giving Max a rundown on what to expect, "Much of this planet remains unknown, mostly because of the reason I've already stated. The only expedition team to try and make planet fall almost died in the attempt; three in the landing and five more when they tried to leave. Of the remaining members we have no information on, if they have survived you are to evac them and all gathered data. For now your job is to try and gather as much information as you can on this planet. You'll be given twenty hours in which to complete your mission and until you return to this ship you'll be completely on your own." Max nodded his understanding, "We'll begin prepping the drop ship ourselves, please have your people continue to work on trying to bust the signal; hopefully, with a little luck we'll be able to get a signal through. The list I gave you earlier, where you able to get everything together?" The Captain nodded. "Good, if there's nothing else I believe we'll get to work." With that Max and his team stood, nodded to the Captain and left to begin their final prep work. As they walked down to the ships hanger Auliya watched her Commander out of the corner of her eye and smiled, glade to see Max acting more like himself, "So what's on this list you gave the Captian?" she asked and couldn't help smiling at the positively wicked smile that flashed over Max's face. "Just some toys I though everyone might enjoy," he answered. The twins ears perked up at the mention of toys, "The kind that goes boom?" asked Kiswa with an almost hungry look in his eyes. Max smile grew, "The kind that makes big booms." Auliya stopped walking, jaw dropped open in surprise, "Tell me you did not do what I think you just did." Max continued down the hall whistling an old earth song, the twins and Kiswa followed behind singing a drinking song about a Chusuk dancing girl and her inability to hold her liquor. "Max!" she yelled while trying to hold in the laugher and quickly followed them to the hanger.

Five hours later they were on their way, due to make planet fall in five minutes. Max was flying the shuttle and Auliya was working navigation. "I think if we punch through here we should be able to bring the shuttle down without damaging too many systems. Though with the way you drive that's not saying much." Max blew her a quick raspberry before turning his attention back to flying. "Shit! I just lost nav control," yelled Auliya seconds before the hit the planet's atmosphere. Too late to pull out and flying blind Max gritted his teeth as the shuttle shook, "Everyone strap in and hold on things are going to get bumpy." Max gritted his teeth and had enough time to hear the safety harness drop and lock his team in before all hell broke loose. The shuttle shook again, lights popped and systems shut down. For a moment the shuttle thrusters went down and they fell like a rock before back up thrusters came on line. As they cleared the clouds the landscape gave testimony to the harsh climate. Barren, with no visible signs of life, the broken grounds and sharp rocks showed the years of continues lighting strikes and static dust storms. 'Shit, shit, shit,' Max though as he dodged between the rocks and tried to stay out of range of the lighting. While trying to dodge flying derbies caused by the current dust storm a lighting strike managed to hit one of the port side engines. "Fuck! Hang on we're going down," yelled Max as he tried to find a flat surface to land on. "There, five degrees to port," yelled Auliya pointing, "it should be able to hold the weight of the shuttle long enough to give us time to get off." "Got it," replied Max as he wrestled with the controls. The shuttle landed hard but the compartment remained it tack, "We've got thirty seconds before this thing blows people, grab what you can and move it," said Max as he quickly undid the safety harness and the shuttle lowered the outer ramp. "Can you get a lock on our position?" asked Max grabbing the nearest black bags and ammo case. "Negitive," replied Bakka as he and his brother grabbed their own bags and headed for the ramp. "Twenty clicks to the west, before the shuttle landed, I thought I saw what looked like a cave," answered Auliya as she exited with more equipment, "it may be able to hide us until this storm passes." "Good. Lock and load people Auliya says we've got possible shelter twenty clicks due west," yelled Max over the noise of the storm. With ten seconds left Max lead his team down the slope and head out to find shelter.

The shuttle blew with the team half way down the slope, Max's team stopped to watch the rising fire ball, "Well so much for our ride home," muttered Baraka, "that's the last time we let the Commander drive; our insurance rates are goin' go through the roof with this one." Max looked at his sergeant with a raised eyebrow while Bakka and Kiswa tried valiantly to hold in their laughter. Seeing the disgruntled look on Max's face they lost the battle and fell over laughing. "I hate you all," muttered Max with a smile before he walked off in the direction of the cave.

As they made camp in the cave Auliya asked the question that Max was dreading, "Have you tried your talent yet to see if you can get a location on the expedition team?" Max hunched his shoulders and muttered his reply. "What, I didn't quite get that," she said refusing to give Max an easy out. "I wanted to wait for the storm to pass before I tried anything," Max finally answered, scowling at her. Auliya knew Max was afraid of using his talent and hurting them in case it got out of control again, but she wasn't about to let him use their safety as a crutch for never using his talent again. "Very well," she replied, "we'll provide support while you see if you can't get a reading." "Al," Max began only to be cut off by the look in her eyes. "Fine, I'll come get you when its time," he said instead, getting up to begin his watch. Auliya looked at the others and they all nodded their agreement, they too felt the same.

Two hours later the storm had stopped and the team was back outside, trying to find a place for Max. Kiswa whistled and indicated a possible spot. Upon seeing it Max nodded his agreement and waved his team into formation. As they set up the perimeter Max exhaled slowly and walked to the center of the circle. Sitting down he set his weapon to the side and checked that his team was protected and in place. Giving one last nod to his Captain he closed his eyes and breathed deep before exhaling slowly.


	14. Chapter 14

Pride of the Gods…

Every time Max used his gift it felt so good, like he'd been half asleep but now that he was "awake" he could fully enjoy the sensations around him. The planet was old, far older than anyone had ever guessed. Life used to run rampant over its shores; plants, animals, and even the ocean life all lived in perfect balance with each other, but a great sadness held sway for the planet knew that this life would die for a great darkness, a hunger so terrible, was coming and nothing could stop it. The planet tried to find help but no one came and eventually the darkness reached it and all life left the planet. In its sadness the storms where created and for the first time in thousands of years the darkness became trapped. It raged against the planet, causing violent upheavals in the land and the oceans to run dry, but still the planet refused to give in, clinging to hope that help would come. The balance was maintained this way for centuries until the other arrived and tipped the balance in favor of the darkness. The other learned to live off the darkness and in exchange the darkness was brought food.

The latest to be sacrificed to the darkness was the humans that had come, explorers drawn to the mysteries the planet held. But not all the humans where given to the darkness, the other held back one of the sacrifices for this one was special; this one would bring a person of power, power enough to finally free the darkness and give the other all the revenge he wanted. The planet wept at the loss of life the humans had brought and once more called for help. Now a new group had come but these did not feel like the humans from before, they felt different and one from the group carried a piece of the darkness with him.

The planet shuddered at the first touch of Max's power and made ready to rebuff the intruder only to be stopped by the light, light it hadn't felt in a long time. This man contained the perfect balance of the darkness and the light; a harmony that sang of life and death and of the balance forever held between the two so it showed him what he need and warned him that the darkness was growing. He thanked the planet before quietly withdrawing his power.

It was as Max was leaving that the darkness struck, tearing into Max's power and shredding his concentration. Max screamed as the darkness tried to invade his soul only to be held back by the light. Max knew the light couldn't hold the darkness back forever but it gave him enough time to rebuild his defenses and to fight back. Max felt the rage hit, remembering what the darkness had done to the planet, and gave it full regain. This time it was the darkness turn to scream in pain. Max quickly followed the path the darkness left back to its lair and forced it to show him where it was. It had housed itself below one of the planets natural formed caves, much like the one Max's team was staying in, only in this case someone, the other the planet spoke about, had enlarged the cave and set up equipment of various types.

Communication equipment, observation monitors, and high powered computers let Max know that the other the planet spoke of was the man behind the curtain that had been creating the tension between Max's people and the humans. The half open creates scattered about the room also gave testimony to how the human rebels were able to get their hands on Tleilaxion weaponry. It was in the corner, tied to a table, that Max finally located the last remaining survivor of the expedition team.

Forcing the darkness closer for a better view Max's concentration wavered for there, half beaten and unconscious, was Heero Yui. The darkness used the slip in concentration to take back control and before Max could do anything else the darkness swallowed him whole.

As Max settled in to use his talent Auliya looked around, once more checking the position of the team, and that the perimeter was secure. Seeing everyone was set she looked back at Max and gave the sign for the go ahead and watched as he closed his eyes and opened his talent. Scanning the area Auliya though once again how sad and barren the planet looked and hoped Max would be able to find what they needed. It wasn't much later that the rocks began to vibrate and the air took on a humming tone, indicating that Max had made contact with the planet. Auliya smiled at the tone and found herself relaxing at the familiar sound; looking around she saw the rest of her team was also smiling at the sound Max was producing.

All Tleilaxion produced sound, or resonation, when they used their talent, only the truly gifted like Max and his family could produce a sound that could be heard by the people around them. Joy, sorrow, anger, and pain could all be heard in the sound of Max's humming and it made Auliya happy to hear such a clear sound come from him after so much uncertainty. Five minutes later she found herself frowning as the tone changed in both pitch and sound. Looking down she noticed the hair on her arms standing up as the air took on a charged feeling, as if a great impending storm was approaching.

Auliya looked at Max and was surprised to see blood running down his face, "Kis watch the rear!" she yelled as she made her way over to Max. She had no sooner moved then the ground exploded behind her and all hell broke loose. The last thing she saw before she hit the ground and the world went dark was one of the twins, Bakka, reach Max and pull him to cover as the bullets began to fly.

Max woke with a hell of a headache and swore that if he ever found that rampaging elephant that had run him over he'd kill it and enjoy ever moment of it. As he tried to find a more comfortable spot, Max was surprised when he found himself unable to move. Opening his eyes he blinked in confusion for the first thing he noticed was that he was tied to a chair, the next thing he noticed was the fact that he had been stripped of all his clothes except for his boxers. Max started stupidly for a moment trying to understand how he had come to be where he was before he began pulling at the ropes that held him. Not surprised that he was held tight he took a moment to look around the room to see if there was anything in it he could use to get free.

Image his surprise when he realized that the room was the same as the one the darkness had shown him; only two things had changed between the time he had seen it and now. One, he could feel the darkness gathering to the side; waiting like a lion to capture it's pray. The second thing that was new was the five tables, all at a perfect forty-five degree angle, giving Max a perfect view of his team and Heero. Max pulled at the ropes in an unconscious effort to reach his team. Whatever it was that had happened while he was unconscious his team had taken a beating. Half of Auliya's face was covered in burses, blood was leaking out of her right ear, her uniform on the left side was singed and her skin looked scraped and raw. The twins and Kiswa had fared no better; covered head to toe in scrapes and bruises and what looked like a few bullet holes as well. Kiswa thigh was bleeding heavily and the twins looked pale from blood loss.

Distracted by his team Max failed to notice the approaching figure until the laughter snapped his head around, "O the look on your face," said a vaguely familiar voice from the shadows, Max narrowed his eye in anger, "I do so enjoy watching you feel helpless," finished the voice as the body emerged into the light. Max tried to lunge at the familiar figure only to be brought up short by the ropes holding him down, "Che-su you son of a bitch. I should have known a coward like you would be behind this." Che-su laughed and walked over to Max. Max could see the madness in his eyes before Che-su hit him across the face. Max saw stars and heard Che-su mad laughter as unconsciousness tried to swallow him. Che-su slapped him back to awareness, "Now, now, none of that. I have so much to tell you and to show you." Max blinked trying to clear his head and focus on what Che-su was saying. Che-su giggled as he saw the awareness return to Max's eye.

He turned and studied the five tables before him, as if he was having trouble deciding who to pick. The hairs on the back of Max's neck stood up as he heard Che-su mad giggle and watched as he approached the table holding Heero.

"This one is special," said Che-su as he ran his hand up and down Heero's arm, "this one is family." Max stilled as Che-su smiled and began to hum a child's lullaby, all while he continued to pet Heero's unconsciousness form. "You'd be amazed at the information one can find when one has more than enough time on his hands," he said ideally while looking at Max, "and thanks to you my team and I had more than enough time." Che-su giggled, lost for a moment in his memories before focusing once again on Max.

"Did you know that the only assignment my team and I could get was in the outer reaches of Wallach?" Max paled at the name for he remembered the destruction and chaos that the outer planets had be subjected to during the war with the Darkling's. Thousands had lost their lives, homes had been destroyed, and entre ecosystems had been lost. Max's own team had been out on the front line fighting the Darkling horde but it was the outer colonies, Wallach in particular, that had taken the brunt of the damages. Crops had been destroyed and food was running out, disease ran rampant, and help was hard to come by; neighbor turned on neighbor and life took on a kill or be killed quality. By the time colonial help had arrived Wallach had lost nearly fifty percent of its population and the two combat teams stationed there had been whipped out. Max never knew Che-su's team had been stationed there.

Che-su smile turned ugly before he quickly pulled a knife from an unseen location and plunged it into Heero's hand; never braking eye contact with Max while he did it. Max yelled and once again struggled against his bonds while Che-su laughed his mad laughter.

It was this that finally brought Heero back to the waking world. Pain was the first thing he felt but that was nothing new; since he had been captured he'd been beaten and starved. The man was unknown to Heero and as far as he knew wanted nothing from him. That the man was crazy was apparent, as to why he had keep Heero alive when he had already killed the others was a different question altogether. Heero suspected that he was waiting for something but he didn't know what. As he opened his eyes and saw the person tied to the chair in front of him it all made a twisted kind of sense.

Maximus Thutmose Yoichi, son to one of the most powerful political families on Richese, grandson to the High Priest of Tleilaxion religion, cousin to the Tleilaxion King, and third in line to the throne. Better known as Max to his friends and family he was also the leader of one of the top hunter-combat teams to come out of Richese in a hundred years. He was also considered one of the most powerful individuals in Richese five thousand year history. Heero had been briefed by both Relena and Quatre after the attempted takeover by the rebels of the Tleilaxion delegation was stopped by the Tleilaxion team. While no picture had been included in the debriefing a general description was in the file along the teams name and its members. The white hair alone was enough of a give away to identify him correctly. As Heero's vision cleared Max's face came into view for the first time and Heero's world stopped.

Max drank in the sight of Heero's face, battered and bruised as it was. While he tried to ignore his old friends watching them interact with Auliya and the others had made it impossible. He found it harder and harder to hide his laughter at the pranks the twins would pull and the many debates Al and Quatre would get into, but deep down what he truly missed was Heero.

Max had only seen Heero that one time and that from a distance, so while the timing of their first meeting was nothing to write home about it was truly good to see him again. Che-su's mad laughter quickly brought him back to reality. "Yes, yes, that is the look I want to see," he said as he brutally yanked out the knife in Heero's hand.

Max's face went still as Che-su began to talk, "O how I have waited to see you suffer. Two years it has taken me to find your secret. Can you imagine my surprise when I came across an old earth article telling about the five brave warriors and how they fought against the Oz oppressors to free earth and the colonies?" As he talked he carefully cut the skin from Heero's outer thigh with the knife, "Imagine finding out that you had a second team, that you had ties to the newly discover worlds. It explains so many things, so many things indeed."

It was at this point Che-su grabbed the flap of skin and ripped it from Heero's leg. Both Heero and Max screamed waking the others. It only took them a second to figure out what was going on before Auliya began to curse and the others began to pull at their bonds. For a second Che-su face lost its look of madness as he started at Auliya, "She begged me you know. Said it wasn't right, that what I wanted was wrong," he looked at Max with such a sad, lost look, "We lost our first member in the first wave; taken out by a plasma grenade, I think. We'd fall back but they just kept coming and one by one they fell. We couldn't protect them; no matter what we did they just kept coming. Eventually we were the only ones left and that's went we found it," a giggle escaped and the madness came back as Che-su turned his attention back to Auliya and slowly walked towards her, "a shuttle, smugglers by the look of it, just sitting there waiting for us."

Coming to a stop next to where Auliya was tied he gently ran a finger down the side of her cheek, "But it was already too late she was dying and all she wanted to do was go home. She died a day later," Che-su giggled again and the hairs on the back of Max's neck stood on end, "she saved me, you know. The shuttle had no supplies and we were weeks away from the nearest planet." Max felt the bile in the back of his throat rise.

What Che-su hinted at was hideous and he had condemned not only his sister but his entire family to be forever lost to the lines. When a Tleilaxion passes on it is only the body that truly dies, their sprit and their talent return to the planet where they then await to be reborn. By eating the flesh of a Tleilaxion they are unable to return and are forever trapped in the body of those that ate them. Che-su had condemned his sister to madness, for a soul that cannot move on will be forever tormented and all of those of Che-su lines can never be reborn until the balance has been restored. Che-su laughed at the look of horror on Max's and the other's face, only Heero didn't understand what was going on.

Leaving Auliya Che-su walked over to Kiswa, "It's curious, you know how you've chosen your second team based on your old one." Max froze at the look on Che-su's face. "Take the little orphan for instance, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a innocent look to hide a devilish mind, kind of like your friend Quatre," Che-su grinned, "the one you where closest to." It was at this point Che-su hand flashed out and a red line appeared across Kiswa's neck. It took Max several seconds to figure out that his throat had been cut and that he was dying as Che-su laughed widely as he watched Kiswa struggled to breathe.

Max's body went numb and a ringing stared in his ears as he watched his friend die. In the back ground the darkness drank in the emotions that where freely flowing in the room; pain, terror, and anger; so much anger. The darkness soaked it all in, gorging itself as the emotions came faster and more intense. After Kiswa was dead Che-su walked over to the twins next, "at first I couldn't figure out why these two and then it dawned on me. They are what the others would have been if they had had a regular life."

Che-su's knife flashed as he plunged it into Bakka's stomach causing him to cry out in pain as he slowly dragged it up to his chest, twisting it at the end before violently ripping is out. Bakka was dead before Che-su turned to his brother and plunged his knife into his rib cage. The ringing in Max's ears grew louder as he watched Baraka drown in his own blood.

In the background Heero and Auliya were yelling as Che-su laughed. The darkness paused in its feasting noticing that the man with the bright light had dimmed, that it was no longer as painful to look at as it once was. It watched as the puppet walked over to the two remaining people and wondered, perhaps for the first time in its unlife, if maybe it should stop the puppet from killing any more of the humans.

"Now all you have left is her," said Che-su as he walked back over to Auliya and Heero, "it obvious when you see them side by side why you choose her, but you don't love her like you do him do you?" Che-su looked at Heero as if trying to figure out what Max saw in such a human, "Tell me Max what hurts more losing your team or losing the one you love?" Che-su turned to look at Max and frowned when he got no response.

Max's head hung down hiding his eyes form Che-su and the rest of the room. Max giggled, "Touch them and you die." Che-su roared in rage as he quickly walked over to Max and proceeded to beat him. Che-su tired quickly and stepped back from Max's bleeding body. Breathing heavily Che-su looked around the room wildly before once more focusing on Heero and Auliya.

Once again he giggled, and nodded to himself as if agreeing with something, "Your right the loss of a love one would hurt a lot more." Heero tensed as Che-su drew near and shot a quick glance in Max's direction, noticing that he still hadn't lifted his head. Che-su's knife flashed and Heero jerked to the side causing the knife to miss his heart and hit his chest instead. Che-su snarled, ripped the knife out and raised it to strike again. As the knife struck the first time the ringing in Max's ears stopped and he found himself suspended in an ocean of calm, the lights danced around him and the dragon stood on his shoulder.

They watched, as if from a distance, as the events unfolded. As the knife struck again the lights stopped their dancing and formed a pentagram in front of Max and the dragon. The dragon looked at Max who said nothing and just nodded his head in agreement. The dragon took flight and Max let the rage in.

As Che-su raised the knife for yet another strike the world came apart in a flash of light. The darkness screamed as it finally met its end in the light. As Che-su turned he too screamed as his eyes were burned from his head. Far above the planet the ship carrying the High Priest waited for a sign. It came in a brilliant explosion of light and from the light a black dragon arose screaming its rage to the world.

The light continued to expand clearing the planet of the last remnants of the darkness. The High Priest and the others watched as the once dead planet started to come undone and that's when they made their move. Transporting down to the planet the High Priest and five of his priest took a quick look around spotting Max and the others they quickly went to work, "The twins and the Lt. are gone; Auliya is stable but the human is in critical condition." Lord Gea watched as two of the team quickly packed the wounds on the human stabilizing him for transport while the others packed the dead for transport. Releasing Auliya from her bonds he hugged her and tried reassuring her that things would be ok but already knowing it never would be again.

As the world continued to come apart around them Lord Gea and Auliya turned to find Max surrounded by light with his hair undone and moving on its own. His eyes had been replaced by light making it hard for the others to look at him. He stood silent watching as the others took his team and transported back up to the ship leaving only his Captain and his grandfather. Lord Gea watched warily as his grandson looked at what was left of Che-su, "I warned him g-pa, I told him to stop but he won't listen." Lord Gea nodded in understanding felling his chest tighten at the name Max hadn't called him by since he entered school, "Then you have nothing to apologize for." "I let them die g-pa; I watched as he killed them and I did nothing to stop him," Max cried as tears ran from his eyes, "my team is dead because of me." Lord Gea watched helplessly as his grandson cried and felt his heart break at the pain Max was going through.

The world around them continued to shake and crumble, "Am so tired g-pa, so tired of it all," sighed Max tiredly as the light around him began to dim little by little. Lord Gea smiled sadly, "I know Max; you can go to sleep now." Max nodded in agreement and closed his eyes for the last time causing the light to go out and leaving a broken and crumbling world in the dark.


	15. Chapter 15

The end of the world…

Max sat in the dark watching the lights chase each other around, the dragon sat in his lap dozing. A light formed in the darkness in front of Max causing the lights to stop their play and the dragon to lift his head in curiosity. A shape slowly form from the light and within moments Max was left looking at the form of his grandfather. "Hello Max," Lord Gea said softly as he watched his grandson hold what looked like a small golden ball, "How have you been doing?" "I miss them so much grandpa," whispered Max softly as a tear slowly ran down his face. Lord Gea nodded, "I know Max but Auliya is still here and Agent Yui is doing well. Your mother hasn't stopped fussing over him since he came home from the hospital." This won a small smile from Max, "I bet Amen is ready to tie him to the bed," Lord Gea snorted in agreement, "The twins will be reborn soon." Lord Gea looked at his grandson in question. It was then he noticed the floor Max was sitting on was lined. Max touched one of the lines and an image appeared showing two pregnant freeman clan women doing laundry in a stream next to their camp. The women were laughing and telling stories about their husbands, just looking at them you could tell they were happy and eagerly looking forward to the birth of their children. "They will be lifelong friends; they will live together, love together, and lose together and throughout it all they will be each other's support and they will never know why so they'll just take it on faith and enjoy their good luck." Max lifted his finger and the image disappeared as he turned to look once more at his grandfather, "Their mother will spend the rest of her life grieving for the loss of her sons but will find some comfort in the sons of her two nieces who will come to see her as a beloved second grandmother." This time it was Lord Gea who cried thankful that the twins where to be reborn so quickly for he too had come to love the playful twins and was truly saddened by their deaths, "and Kiswa?"

A small smile reappeared on Max's face as he held up the golden ball he had been holding, "His line was lost so he would have gone into the void but he refuses to leave me so I've made him a deal." Max touched another of the lines on the floor and the image of his Lady Mother, Lady Isis, appeared. The image showed her talking to her husband, Lord Asar as they made ready for bed. Lord Asar said something that had his wife tackling him and tickling him into submission. It was as their play fighting turned into something more physically that Max crushed the golden ball and gently blew the dust into the image that Lord Gea chuckled in understanding. Max grinned at his grandfather as the image vanished leaving to two lovers to their play. "She's not going to be thanking you when she's suffering morning sickness, you know," Lord Gea said trying to keep his laughter under control. This time Max laughed out right at the image of his Lady Mother with morning sickness.

The laughter soon faded leaving the two men in silence before Max finally asked, "How are the humans dealing with the rebel now that their supplier is gone?" Lord Gea's smile took on a predatory like quality, "Let's just say relations between our two people have never been better, especially since our hunter-combat teams refuse to help them once word got about that you had almost been killed because the humans refused to share intel." Max snorted in amusement thinking of all the paperwork Lady Une would now be required to redo in order to begin renegotiates with the Tleilaxion.

"And the other's?" Max asked quietly, not looking at his grandfather. "Young Mr. Winner and Ms. Peacecraft, along with two Preventer agents, will be arriving in two weeks time to retrieve their missing comrade and to hopefully begin negotiates between our peoples." It was at this point that a sound came from the darkness behind Max, surprising Lord Gea and causing Max to giggle. "I have to leave now don't I?" asked Lord Gea already knowing the answer.

Max nodded as he stood to hug his grandfather goodbye, steeping back for one last look a seriousness that Lord Gea had never seen before crossed Max's face, "This is the last time we'll be able to talk like this grandpa," Lord Gea felt himself go pale at his grandson's words, "there something I got to do and am not sure how long it will take but I want you to promise me one thing," Lord Gea nodded, already knowing that he would do anything Max requested, "do not let the Sadus near my body. Keep it hidden if you must, let no one know." Lord Gea looked at Max in horror for the Sadus, the Holy Judges, where a heretic court that believed that only death and chaos could truly save the Tleilaxion people from decline. It was a religion born out of Richese turbulent time and had had very few followers. They worshiped the three gods of war and destruction hence the three Holy Judges, Enlil, god of storms; Belatu, destroyer of enemies; and Resheph, the god of plagues. They are said to be forever bond to Aray the Resurrected, a war god so steeped in blood as to be able to bring back his enemies to be killed again and again.

The High Priest nodded in agreement, Max's potential was enormous but still fragile, if the Sadus gained control of Max before he learned to harness his new powers nothing would be left standing. Lord Gea watched his grandson disappear into the void before he too returned.

Opening his eyes Lord Gea stared quietly as his grandson's body, it had been weeks before Max had been willing to allow his grandfather entrance into his mind and in truth Lord Gea found it a truly frightening place to be, so much power contained in such a fragile body, but he went trying to keep his grandson connected to this world, praying everyday he awoke that Max would yet still live and now after months of begging, pleading, and a few threats he'd finally be able to have a full conversation with Max only to be told of an even greater danger that awaited him. The High Priest wept in sorrow and in joy for hope had been restored, his grandson would return but for now he must be hidden from those that loved him the most. As the tears slowed a smile slowly took their place for while Max must leave his brother would soon arrive and the joy that though brought helped Lord Gea prepare for what awaited.


End file.
